The Creative Background of Van Gogh's Starry Sky

1889, Van Gogh's madness broke out again. After a fierce argument with Gauguin, he cut off his ear, wrapped it in a handkerchief and gave it to a prostitute. After that, he was sent to the madhouse in San Remy. He stayed there for a year and eight days. During this period, he still painted diligently, and completed more than 150 oil paintings and 100 sketches.

His paintings at this time have completely tended to expressionism. In his paintings, images churning like waves and flames are full of melancholy spirit and tragic illusion. The oil painting Starry Night is his masterpiece of this period. ?

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Starry Sky, as an expressive work of the post-impressionist painter Van Gogh, has a strong brushwork. Blue, the main color in oil painting, represents unhappy and gloomy mood. Thick strokes represent sadness. The scene in the picture is looking out of the window. The tree in the painting is a cypress tree, but it is painted as a black flame, which goes straight into the sky and makes people feel uneasy. The texture of the sky is like a spiral galaxy, accompanied by many stars, while the moon appears as a dim eclipse.

In the whole painting, the village at the bottom is depicted with straight and short lines, showing a kind of tranquility; But it is in sharp contrast with the rough and curved lines in the upper part. In this highly exaggerated deformation and strong visual contrast, the artist's restless mood and psychedelic image world are reflected.