“For my part I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” —Vincent van Gogh
On June 18, 1889 Vincent van Gogh created his most famous painting: The Starry Night.
Van Gogh spent a year at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a mental asylum where he created many of his most well known works—the Starry Night being one of them. He voluntarily admitted himself to the psychiatric hospital in 1889 after a severe mental health crisis which included him cutting off a part of his ear and is famously depicted in one of his self-portraits. This occurred after an argument with artist Paul Gauguin.
St. Rémy’s was a small asylum with only 41 patients. Beforehand, it was planned for Van Gogh to be admitted to a large institution in the heart of France. If he had been, he wouldn’t be able to create the art he did. In just one year, he created 150 paintings and 100 drawings. Experts say he suffered from bipolar disorder, alcoholism, epilepsy, and possibly schizophrenia with a borderline personality disorder.
Despite the despair Van Gogh faced due to his mental health, his paintings always remained incredibly bright and filled with hope. This showed exactly how he saw beauty in nature even though disheartening circumstances. During his time in the asylum, he and his doctors believed art would help him survive. As other patients screamed through mornings and nights, Van Gogh would be painting instead.
The Starry Night was inspired by the view Van Gogh had outside of his asylum window at St. Rémy. During his stay, the night sky, nearby village, and the tall cypress trees became his source of imagination and influence. Van Gogh also admired Japanese prints and drew inspiration from Hokusai’s The Great Wave, creating a similar pattern with the swirls he created in the sky. Although he painted it by memory during the day, he was deeply moved by the night sky itself and wrote about the intense colors he saw. Van Gogh’s passion for astronomy also shaped the painting as he included accurate placing of the brightest stars and planets.
Today, the Starry Night has a home at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City where millions come to see the painting every year.
To say the least, Vincent van Gogh was truly a genius in creating art. The first time he picked up a paintbrush was in 1880 at the age of 27 years old. From then on he was determined to teach himself how to paint and draw. Although he did attend art classes in Brussels and Paris with the support of his brother Theo, he was still largely self taught. Van Gogh went through a decade of intense production creating over 1,100 pieces of art in under a decade until his death.
On July 27, 1890, after experiencing a significant breakdown, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. 2 days later he died with his brother Theo at his side. His last words to him were “La tristesse durera toujours” meaning, “The sadness will last forever…”
After his death, Theo organized an exhibition of Vincent’s paintings in their Paris apartment. He was determined to make his brother’s importance as an artist known. However, his health began to deteriorate, attributed to his profound grief of his brother’s death. Sadly, Theo passed away just 6 months after Vincent.
After losing her husband, Theo, and her brother-in-law Vincent, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, was determined to continue her late husband’s efforts. Raising an infant alone and with only her small apartment and Vincent’s unsold paintings, she decided to return to the Netherlands. She took the paintings with her even after being advised to leave them in Paris. There, she devoted her life to establishing the legacy of Vincent and her late husband Theo in spite of others harshly dismissing her. Jo continued promoting Vincent’s art and publishing the letters between her and Theo, highlighting her late husband’s role in Vincent’s art career. She did this even as others called her sentimental and uninformed about art. Ultimately, her work proved to be successful after Vincent’s paintings began being recognized and put into exhibitions.
Although he gained posthumous fame, Van Gogh heartbreakingly died thinking he was a failure, not knowing just how much his art and his story would inspire the world for years to come.
The famous song Vincent by Don McLean (the artist also behind the famous song American Pie), written in 1971, captures Van Gogh’s tragic loneliness and how at the time the world failed to understand him. With lyrics like, “Starry, starry night paint your palette blue and gray look out on a summer’s day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul,” reflecting how even someone who created art so beautiful still suffered within. The song’s lyrics also included, “Now, I think I know what you tried to say to me, how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free, they would not listen, they’re not listening still, perhaps they never will,” encapsulating how Van Gogh was misunderstood during his time and still is today.
For the emotions it conveys, the expressiveness in each brushstroke, and the story of Vincent van Gogh’s life, the Starry Night will always be one of my favorite works of art and Van Gogh my favorite artist.