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Vincent Van Gogh and his Night Landscapes
When thinking about Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings of landscapes at night, the first one pictured here is non-other than his masterpiece, The Starry Night (1889). It captures the bright stars shining across the night sky with cypress tree at the left corner. It’s no secret that Van Gogh was fascinated with night views: he spoke about it in a letter to his brother, Theo. “It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly coloured than the day”.
Another painting that should not be forgotten is Road with Cypress and Star (1890), Van Gogh’s last painting in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence that drew purely from his imagination. This painting combines all the elements and motifs Van Gogh loves the most; night sky, moon, stars, and cypress tree. The art historians marked this as the painting that reflected Van Gogh’s thoughts about how his life had come to the end. The picture of cypress tree, branches reaching into the starry night sky, formed into circular shape, implies the everlasting life in the universe. The location of two stars and the moon are assumed to refer to the nature phenomenon on April 20th 1890 when Mercury and Venus orbited to almost the same level, with only 3° away from each other. The brightness of the stars is as bright as Sirius Stars. This painting, though the fame cannot be compared to The Starry Night, but it was drew by Van Gogh’s emotions and desire inside his heart.
How about you? How do you picture the night views in your mind?
