artwork presentation

Vincent Willem Van Gogh (30 march 1853 – 29 july 1890) painted The Starry Night (73 cm × 92 cm) in 1889. He was a Dutch post-impressionist artist. We can see a view of a village at night, there are stars in the sky and the moon. There are mountains far away.

Now I am going to speak about the description. First, we can see that there is a lot of different blue, and a little bit of yellow and white. Blue is a cool color, it represents the temperature of the night in a country. Yellow is warmer, it represents stars, the moon and some light in houses. About the tone, we can say that there are predominantly dark colors, actually it is the night. In the foreground, there is a cypress, it is the darker object of the artwork, and it emphasizes it. And we have a few lights from stars, moon and houses with yellow.
Lines are curved, heavy and hard. We can see lines with clouds, stars, the moon, mountains and trees. We can see that there is everywhere lines in the sky, they are moving around stars and the moon. With houses, we have a little bit of straight lines with roofs, windows and wall. But these lines are not really straight. We have a straight direction with the line of mountains and a vertical with the cypress in the foreground. There is a curved direction with clouds, in the middle distance of the sky. Directions suggest movement, we can imagine that there is wind and that the cypress and clouds are moving.
There is no void in this artwork, there is a heavy mass. It is accentuated by the fact that the painting is only covered by little touches of paint.

About the analysis, we can say that there is a contrast between the yellow and the blue used in the sky, it makes stars and the moon more lively. The focus of this painting is the sky. The eye is attracted by it because there are contrasting elements with white and yellow of stars and moon opposed to the dark blue of the sky. Moreover, clouds are moving, they make a curved direction and there is everywhere lines moving in the sky.
There is harmony and unity in this artwork, because it has been made with a lot of little touches of painting. There are a lot of curves. It gives us a sentiment of calmness and lightness.

There is a lot of movement in this painting. In the sky, clouds are moving, lines are moving and the tree is moving too. We can imagine that there is wind. I think there is an opposition between the calmness of the night with blue, curves, and little touches of painting, and the idea of movement. Moreover, houses looks safe but the cypress looks like fire, and it is not really safe and calm. I learned that Vincent Van Gogh suffered from anxiety and had a mental illness. I think that he could have liked starry nights because the atmosphere is calm and safe, and he had wanted to paint it. But in this painting, we can feel his anxiety and his confusion because there is insecurity, the cypress can be a fire and all the sky is moving.

I like this artwork because I think it is beautiful, there is beautiful colors and movement. Moreover I like to watch starry sky. This is an example of the technique to paint with little touches of paint. It is a characteristic of the artist.