The starry night

 

The Starry Night represents the view outside the asylum in Saint Rémy where Van Gogh lived from 1889 to1890. 

Van Gogh painted it while he was living through one of the most difficult times in his life.

 

The small village is depicted under a blue and yellow sky, animated by threatening whirls. 

In the foreground, there is a sombre, dark cypress with waving leaves. 

Both on the right and in the middle of the painting, you can see some houses with sloping roofs. Among the houses, the bell tower of a small church rises.

The main characteristic of the painting is the use of long, thick strokes which follow the shape of things.

 This technique gives the viewer a sense of movement. Blue and yellow are the predominant colours. Blue symbolizes natural things, and yellow, supernatural things.

Blue are the trees, the hills, the bushes and also the sky, they all are frightening and seem to move quickly and violently; yellow are the moon and stars, which instead, clear up the sky and cheer up.

The painting conveys Van Gogh's ideas, according to which, man caught in the whirl of life, can only take refuge in religious belief.

https://inglesedonmilani.blogspot.com/2025/03/van-gogh.html