Elena Rossi
There is no evidence to suggest that Van Gogh was drunk when he painted 'The Starry Night' in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in June 1889. The painting was created during his 12-month stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, where he had admitted himself after a mental breakdown and self-mutilation. During his stay, Van Gogh was highly productive, and his work included some of his best-known pieces, such as 'The Starry Night'. This painting was inspired by the view from his bedroom window, and he made several sketches for it, including F1547 The Enclosed Wheatfield After a Storm. Van Gogh was fascinated by the night sky and had been working on capturing it in his art for several months.
| Characteristics | Values |
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| Was Van Gogh drunk when he painted Starry Night? | No evidence found |
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What You'll Learn
Van Gogh's mental health
There is no evidence to suggest that Van Gogh was drunk when he painted "The Starry Night". However, the painting was created during his stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, where he had voluntarily admitted himself following a mental breakdown and an act of self-mutilation, in which he severed part of his own ear with a razor.
During his year-long stay at the asylum, Van Gogh experienced bursts of productivity that alternated with moods of despair. He was encouraged to paint and was provided with a studio space with no view, where he is believed to have painted "The Starry Night". The painting was based on the view from his bedroom window, which he sketched and later used as a reference for his paintings.
Despite being critical of "The Starry Night", referring to it as a “failure”, Van Gogh's work has become iconic. It is regarded as a touchstone of modern art and one of the most recognizable paintings in the Western canon.
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Artistic process
Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" was painted during his 12-month stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. This followed a mental breakdown and an infamous act of self-mutilation, where he severed part of his ear with a razor. During his time at the asylum, Van Gogh was encouraged to paint and was provided with a studio space with no view. He was also given access to a second-story bedroom with a view of the Alpilles mountain range.
The painting was created in mid-June 1889, inspired by the view from his bedroom window, facing east. Van Gogh made several sketches and painted variations of this view no fewer than twenty-one times, including "The Starry Night". He depicted the view at different times of the day and under various weather conditions, such as sunrise, moonrise, sunshine, overcast skies, windy days, and rain. While he was not allowed to paint in his bedroom, he made sketches in ink or charcoal on paper and based newer variations on previous versions.
Van Gogh was particularly interested in the challenges of painting a night landscape, and he wrote about it extensively in letters to his brother, Theo, his sister, Wil, and a fellow painter, Émile Bernard. He described the night as more colourful than the day, with stars appearing in various colours, including yellow, pink, and green. He also wrote about the technical challenges of using contrasting colours and painting en plein air at night.
In his letters, Van Gogh also expressed his thoughts on the symbolic meaning of the painting. He wrote about the personal struggles and emotional turmoil he was experiencing, which some art historians believe are reflected in the swirling sky. He also mentioned the village in the foreground of the painting, which was an imaginary addition, as an expression of his inner conflict.
Van Gogh applied the paint directly from the tube onto the canvas, creating thick impasto and intense hues. He was ambivalent about working from his imagination and memory, and he regarded "The Starry Night" as a failure. However, the painting has since become one of his most famous works, recognised as a masterpiece and a touchstone of modern art.
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Symbolism and interpretation
"The Starry Night" is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it is considered one of the most recognizable paintings in the Western canon. The painting was created during Van Gogh's stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, where he admitted himself following a mental breakdown.
The swirling sky in "The Starry Night" has been interpreted in various ways, including as a reflection of contemporary astronomical discoveries or as a representation of Van Gogh's personal struggles and emotional turmoil. Art historian Sven Loevgren describes the painting as a "visionary painting" conceived in a state of "great agitation", reflecting Van Gogh's "religiously inclined longing for the beyond." Loevgren interprets the painting as symbolizing the "final absorption of the artist by the cosmos" and the "threshold of eternity."
The cypress trees in the foreground of the painting have also been the subject of symbolic interpretation. Traditionally, cypress trees have been associated with death in European culture, and some commentators have linked them to Van Gogh's eventual suicide. However, the cypress also represents immortality and has been interpreted as a "symbolic counterpart of Van Gogh's own striving for the Infinite." The church spire, stretching up into the sky, has been seen as an antenna or lightning conductor, reflecting Van Gogh's fascination with the provincial Eiffel Tower.
The village in the painting is an imaginary addition, and it has been interpreted as either a recollection of Van Gogh's Dutch homeland or a symbol of his emotional state. The diagonal line coming from the right, depicting the low rolling hills of the Alpilles mountains, provides a unifying pictorial element to the series of paintings Van Gogh created of this view.
Some art historians have interpreted "The Starry Night" through a religious lens, seeing it as a "traditional religious subject in disguise" and a reflection of Van Gogh's deepest religious feelings. The painting's celestial elements, including Venus and the crescent moon, have been interpreted symbolically, with the moon representing "consolation."
Overall, "The Starry Night" is a complex and multifaceted work that has been subjected to numerous interpretations, reflecting the personal, religious, and philosophical dimensions of Van Gogh's artistic vision.
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Artistic influences
There are several artistic influences that may have inspired Van Gogh's Starry Night. Firstly, the painting is believed to have been influenced by the view from the artist's bedroom window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, where he voluntarily admitted himself after a mental breakdown. The view included the sweeping mountain range of the Alpilles, wheat fields, and the village of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
Secondly, Van Gogh's letters reveal his interest in capturing the night sky accurately. He wrote about the colours of the night sky and the stars, describing them as not just simple white dots on a black backdrop, but rather having a yellow, pink, or green hue. This preoccupation with the night sky and the challenges of painting it accurately may have influenced his decision to create a nocturnal study of the view from his window.
Thirdly, Van Gogh's personal struggles and emotional turmoil may have influenced the painting. Some art historians interpret the swirling sky as a reflection of his inner conflict and emotional state. The painting may also be seen as a personal Gethsemane, referencing Christ on the Mount of Olives, indicating premonitions of suffering.
Lastly, Van Gogh's artistic style and techniques were influenced by his stay in Paris from 1886 to 1888, where he developed an expressive style that involved applying paint directly from the tube onto the canvas, creating thick impasto and intense hues. Additionally, he may have been influenced by his collaboration with the painter Paul Gauguin, with whom he discussed Biblical allegories and the work of Christ, which may have informed the symbolic content of Starry Night.
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Posthumous fame
While Van Gogh is now considered one of the most celebrated artists of the nineteenth century, and his painting The Starry Night is regarded as one of the most recognisable paintings in the Western canon, Van Gogh was not always so famous. During his lifetime, Van Gogh contributed works to exhibitions only on a few minor occasions, which mostly passed unnoticed by critics and the public.
Van Gogh's fame began to spread in France and Belgium during the last year of his life and, in the years after his death, in the Netherlands and Germany. His posthumous fame was largely due to his brother, Theo, an art dealer who had financially supported him during his life. Theo intended to promote his elder brother's work after his death, but he died just six months after Vincent. It was Theo's widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who successfully built Vincent van Gogh's posthumous fame. She published the brothers' letters and loaned and sold some of Vincent's paintings to museums for exhibitions. The publication of the letters helped spread the mystique of Vincent van Gogh throughout Europe and the rest of the world—an intense and dedicated painter who died young.
Van Gogh's first champions in the English-speaking world were the Bloomsbury art critics Roger Fry and Clive Bell. In a 1924 essay, "Vincent van Gogh", Fry wrote that after Van Gogh's death, he "disappeared" and was scarcely thought of again until the 1910 "Post Impressionist Exhibition", which astonished and infuriated cultured England. Fry's essay set the tone for many subsequent Van Gogh studies, which are predominantly biographical to this day.
The American novelist Irving Stone also added to Van Gogh's fame with his 1934 biographical account of the artist, Lust for Life, which was later adapted into a film in 1956. Various aspects of Van Gogh's life have been portrayed in several other film features, including Vincent (1987), Vincent & Theo (1990), Vincent and Me (1990), Dreams (1990), Van Gogh (1991), and At Eternity's Gate (2018). Van Gogh's life and depression are also portrayed in the 1971 song "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)", written by Don McLean.
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Frequently asked questions
There is no evidence to suggest that Van Gogh was drunk when he painted Starry Night. He painted it during his 12-month stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, where he was admitted following a mental breakdown.
Van Gogh was inspired by the view from his bedroom window at the asylum. He wrote to his sister, "This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big."
Van Gogh painted Starry Night in mid-June 1889.
Starry Night has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941.
