Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890,

a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter,

found his place in art and

produced emotional, visually arresting

paintings over the course of a career

that only lasted a decade.

Largely self-taught, van Gogh produced

more than 2,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and sketches during his lifetime.
 
The Post-Impressionist style he developed in Paris, encompassed works made by artists unified by their interest in expressing their emotional and psychological responses to the world through bold colors and expressive, often symbolic, images.

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Van Gogh painted Starry Night with oil paint on stretched linen using bristle brushes and pallet knives.

His work depicts a night sky alive with heavenly bodies of light swirling with energy, including contoured forms meant to be expressive and to convey emotion.

To achieve this, he would load his brushes and knives with paint, applying it in thick strokes, a technique called impasto.

 

Painted from his memories, Starry Night illustrates a view from an east-facing window of an asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise. Van Gogh voluntarily confined himself to the asylum after cutting off part of his left ear. 

At times, his mental illness would completely incapacitate him. 

During his more lucid moments, he was allowed to work outside the asylum and pursue his art with nature as his inspiration.

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Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture, according to art experts. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. 

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For more information, visit: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en

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