Gracious sake, yesterday was the first day of spring, and I neglected to honor its arrival. We hear the chirping of possible snowfall the next days, but this chick isn't holding her breath. Despite my lengthy prayers for a blizzard beyond belief, we get nothing closely related to winter in our area. I personally feel we need below zero temps to kill germs. And, we need snow to satisfy our soil with moisture.
Yesterday we ventured out for Chinese lunch. When the waiter came to our table with the bill, he also left two fortune cookies. I grabbed one, opened the plastic wrapper, broke the cookie in half and read, "You will soon have a day filled with fun." When the boyfriend opened his fortune cookie, there was no fortune. What's a person supposed to make of that?
Today we will visit the gallery of Van Gogh's masterpieces:
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| The Starry Night - 1889 |
This painting depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at St. Remy's before sunrise, with an imaginary village. A church steeple dominates the village scene. The painting is filled with whirling clouds, shining stars and a bright crescent moon. There are many interpretations offered about the meaning of the cypress tree. Was it a symbol of mourning? or a symbol of his close, almost inseparable, relationship with his brother Theo. Both the cypress tree and the steeple point to the heavens. The Starry Night is one of the most recognizable paintings in Western art.
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| Cafe Terrace at Night - 1888 |
First, a print of Cafe Terrace at Night, hung on my office wall for years.
This painting reflects Vincent's mood when he wrote that "the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." The silhouette of the Starry sky is key to the patterning of the whole--the poetic idea of the work--the double illumination and contrast of the Cafe and the night sky. Notice in the silhouette of the orange Cafe floor and the adjoining window and doors, we discover the inverted shape of the blue sky....the scattered disks of the stars are matched in the elliptical tabletops below. The positions of the stars in the night sky of Cafe Terrace at Night are accurate, according to astronomical data.
The most eye-catching aspect of the painting is the sharp contrast between the warm yellow, green and orange colors under the marquise and the deep blue of the Starry sky, which is reinforced by the dark blue of the houses in the background.
At the 2013 European Conference on Arts and Humanities, it was suggested that Van Gogh's painting contains allusions to Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. A close study of the painting reveals the main characters include one central figure with long hair and white robe surrounded by 12 individuals (Judas the one figure standing apart from the others) plus the window pains behind the main figure forms a cross. Around the time Vincent was working on Cafe Terrace at Night, he wrote to his brother explaining that he had a "tremendous need for, shall I say the word, - for religion," with direct reference to this painting.
It's interesting that the Cafe in the painting is still in existence, renamed the Cafe Van Gogh.
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| Starry Night Over the Rhone - 1888 |
Next we see Vincent's Starry Night Over the Rhone, a print of which also graced the walls of my office for years.
Note here the swirling forms of the reflections and the emotional intensity. In the center sky, Vincent showcases the seven stars that make up the Big Dipper. Vincent painted this at a spot on the banks of the river which was only a couple minutes away from The Yellow House that we previously learned about.
The challenge of painting at night intrigued Van Gogh. The vantage point he chose for this painting allowed him to capture the reflections of the gas lighting in Arles across the glimmering blue water of the Rhone River. Here he emphasized the importance he placed in capturing the sparkling colors of the night sky and the artificial lighting that was new to this period in time. Note how he balances the night sky with the waters of the Rhone. In the foreground, two lovers stroll by the banks of the river. The stars glow with a luminescence, shining from the dark, blue and velvety night sky. Dotted along the banks of the Rhone houses also radiate yellow light that reflects in the water and adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the painting. Note the two boats close to shore.
Vincent wrote to his brother, "Once I went for a walk along the deserted shore at night. It was not cheerful, it was not sad--it was beautiful."
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| Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait - 1889 |
Vincent painted over 40 portraits of himself. The one above is one of his most famous. He shows himself wearing what he worked in--his blue jacket and shirt. In an attempt to be as true to himself as possible, he depicts his sharp features--the furrow in his brow, and the striking red tones of his hair and beard. Heavy lines of paint seem to emanate from his head like a wavering force field, perhaps mirroring his turbulent thoughts and tortured spirit. This is one of the final self-portraits he painted before his death the following year.
Why did he paint so many self-portraits? He himself was a model always present. All he needed was a mirror.
I'm winding down the study of Vincent Van Gogh, but there is yet more to follow.🖌
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