West and East Aesthetic Interaction: Van Gogh’s Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) vs. Bichitr’s Jahangir Seated on an Allegorical Throne
The Age of Discovery led to intense cultural interaction between West and East allowing European and Asian artists to mutually affect each other’s aesthetic traditions.
Bichtir’s Jahangir Seated on an Allegorical Throne (see figure 2) is dated the as early 1620s. Jahangir depicted in the painting was on of Mughals who ruled in India from 1526 till 1857. Interestingly, Mughals “descended from two great ruling lineages, the Timurids and the Mongols,” and their empire “extended across India and Persia” (Ferguson 38). As curators of Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery stated, “The Mughals affirmed their legitimacy as heirs of the Timurids through artistic, literary, and architectural patronage,” (qtd. in Ferguson 38).
Thus, three Mughal rulers known for encouraging and supporting Indian artists were Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. According to Diamond, “the Mughals were the apogees of sophistication in the Islamic world, and they created an art that was utterly revolutionary and totally Indian and deeply connected to the broader world, including Europe,” (qtd. in Ferguson 38). Hence, Bichitr was one of Mughals’ court painters supposed “to create distinctive and intricate paintings rich with color from the Mughal Empire” (Ferguson 38). Furthermore, during his rule (1605-1627) Jahangir granted Great Britain (under the rule of King James I) official permission to come and trade in India. As a result of intense trading, India and Great Britain exchanged not only goods but also art pieces and cultural traditions.
Van Gogh’s Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) (see figure 1) dates back to 1887, the period Van Gogh spent in Paris. After meeting “modern artists like Claude Monet,” “a new generation of artists at Fernand Cormon’s studio, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard,” Van Gogh started experimenting with his style (“From Dark to Light” par. 1).
Historically, the end of the eighteenth century involved crucial changes in politics in France: defeat in Franco-Prussian, the fall of Napoleon III, the foundation of the French Third Republic. Following the bourgeois women also took an active part in their social life. Moreover, numerous scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, psychology, biology, and other subjects gave a boost of energy to French society.
Hence, the end of the nineteenth century in France can be characterized by abrupt changes in political and social life, the tempestuous development of science, technology, and likewise art. During this short period of time, France, in particular, demonstrated a vast range of Modernism art styles, namely, naturalism, romanticism, impressionism; prominent artists displayed their masterpieces for the audience in numerous exhibitions. Therefore, goods and cultural pieces from all over the world came to Europe and France, in particular, adding new perspectives to its active development.
Hence, Van Gogh was thrilled by the new environment. He started using brighter colors and developed “his own style of painting, with short brush strokes” (“From Dark to Light” par. 2). Furthermore, Van Gogh found a new form of inspiration in “Japanese woodcuts, which sold in large quantities in Paris” (“From Dark to Light” par. 2). However, he was not the only one interested in japonisme as Degas, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec also “studied Japanese prints and were influenced by their colors, composition, and subject matter” (Leuthold 180).
Japanese artists Hokusai and Hiroshige made “ukiyo-e prints – picture of the Floating World” that “portrayed actors, geishas, landscapes, stories, and everyday life in Japan from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries” for distribution around the world (Leuthold 180). Hence, Van Gogh presented his own interpretation of one of Hiroshige’s works and painted Bridge in the Rain (see figure 1). The painting shows that Van Gogh was taken by “bold outlines, cropping and color contrasts” in Japanese prints (“From Dark to Light” par. 2). However, short brush strokes and bright colors characterize Van Gogh’s painting style in contrast with Hiroshige’s one (see figure 1).
Furthermore, comparisons of Van Gogh’s (see figure 1) and Bichitr’s (see figure2) works in terms of colors reveal the coloristic difference between the two paintings and two aesthetic traditions: western and eastern ones. Namely, Van Gogh uses bright primary yellow and blue colors and also bright secondary green and orange colors (see figure 1). In contrast, Bichitr prefers tertiary, quaternary, and even quinary colors (russet, plum, sage, citron, orange, buff, khaki) (see figure 2).
In terms of subject matter, Van Gogh depicts the Japanese landscape with ordinary people crossing the bridge or floating along the river (see figure 1). According to Leuthold, Van Gogh tried to “capture the mood of the spirit of a landscape” and express “the vitality of place” (180). European impressionist and modernist traditions of portraying small figures of people on boulevards and in cafes are also reflected in the choice of this subject matter. In contrast, Bichitr’s subject of matter is an allegorical depiction of Mughal ruler Jahangir (see figure 2). This painting contains a “world within a world” and has “symbolism and allegory” around the central figure of the emperor (Ferguson 39).
According to Welch’s commentary, although putti “have inscribed it with the wish that he [Jahangir] might live a thousand years”, hourglass symbolizing Jahangir’s throne shows that his time has almost run out, meaning that “the Emperor is turning from this world to the next” (qtd. in “Jahangir (d.1627) preferring Sufi shaikhs over King James I of England; by Bichitr, earlier 1620’s” par. 2). By Welch, the emperor handles a book “to the saint… not to the Ottoman sultan… nor to King James I of England… and not even to Bichitr, a symbolic ruler of art” (qtd. in “Jahangir (d.1627) preferring Sufi shaikhs over King James I of England; by Bichitr, earlier 1620’s” par. 2).
The meaning of this gesture is inscribed on the painting, “Though outwardly shahs stand before him, he fixes his gazes on dervishes”. Moreover, as noted by Malecka, “the decoration of the Mughal thrones with solar motives… created the celestial space for the Emperor – “The Sun” (24). Hence, Jahangir welcomes foreigners to come but shows his ultimate might as the sun and asks his descendants to value indigenous cultural and religious traditions.
Although both works represent the characteristic style of their authors, the influence of foreign aesthetic tradition is evident in Van Gogh’s and Bichitr’s paintings. Regarding composition and subject matter, Van Gogh uses perspective and proportions of Japanese art, namely coping Hiroshige’s angled horizon, his linear perspective, simple and direct composition (see figure 1). According to Beach, Bichitr’s “interest in portraiture and the identifiable European sources makes this the most “European” of all Jahangir’s portraits” (104). Namely, Bichitr copies the Western portrait of King James I and incorporates putti in his artwork (see figure 2).
Therefore, despite differences in colors, motifs, subject matters, and styles Van Gogh’s Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) and Bichitr’s Jahangir Seated on an Allegorical Throne make a good comparison because they both testify of mutual influence of West and East aesthetic traditions in terms of cultural and visual perception of the world.
Art Works References
Figure 1: Van Gogh, Vincent. Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige), 1887.Figure 2: Bichitr, Jahangir Seated on an Allegorical Throne, earlier 1620’s.
Works Cited
Beach, Milo Cleveland. The New Cambridge History of India: Mughal and Rajput Painting, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Print.
Ferguson, Barbara. “Worlds within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran.” The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 31.7 (2012): 38-39.
In the 1880s, the Post Impressionist situation emerged in France. This new generation of painters gained independence from Impressionism’s focus on empirical observation and experimented with a new, more abstract method of painting, despite the fact that it developed out of it. Paul Gauguin established a “primitive” picture based on simple flattened forms limited by thick outlines that defied Renaissance viewpoint and drawing standards instead of drawing inspiration from ancient flat styles, Japanese designs, and so-called primitive creative works. Vincent Van Gogh expressed deep emotion through brilliant colors and dense, vibrant brushstrokes. This work is written in order to compare two pieces of art: “Night Cafe” and “Jacob Wrestling with the Angel.”
Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter, turned to artwork as a way to express his tormented spirit after a mediocre career as a priest. He was largely self-taught, with inspirations such as François Millet, whose peasant subjects he appreciated, and Eugene Delacroix, whose use of colors and brushwork he enjoyed. Gogh introduced the Impressionist approach of plein air drawing, which is based on empirical observation, to this combination (Van Gogh and Duquesne). However, unlike the Impressionists, Van Gogh did not attempt to paint exactly what he observed with his eyes. Instead, he tried to put his feelings into words.
“The Night Café” was created shortly after Gauguin’s breakup. In its dark and unempathetic attitude, it portrays Van Gogh’s tortured spirit. The hour is late, according to the clock on the wall, yet the tables are littered with empty beer bottles and containers, indicating a more joyful environment earlier in the night. The eerie brightness of the gas lamps was heightened by the enormous shadow created by the billiard table. The bar’s forlorn patrons hunch over their drinks, focused on their sadness — prostitutes and drunks, gauging by their behavior (Gerson). The café owner, meantime, leans nonchalantly against a tabletop, his white suit stained with a sickly green hue. Exaggerated perspectives, bright hues, and frantic brushwork all contribute to a disconcerting impression of isolation and sorrow.
Unlike other Impressionist paintings, the painter does not portray a neutral attitude about the universe or a positive attitude toward the beauty of nature or the present moment. The picture is an example of Van Gogh’s use of what he termed provocative color or, as he would later describe it, gratuitous color, in which the artist filled his paintings with his feelings, a characteristic of what would later be known as Expressionism.
Paul Gauguin started his career as a wealthy stockbroker and a devoted husband, but in the 1880s, he left his job and family to pursue his dream of being an artist. He left Paris to live in Brittany, a small town in Northern France that claimed to have escaped industrialization, criticizing the materialism of the public sphere. Gauguin, like Van Gogh, desired to escape civilization by going to the countryside and living a more natural lifestyle.
Many of Impressionism’s principles were rejected by Gauguin. He preferred to work from memory and imagination rather than empirical evidence, and he picked to finish his paintings in the home rather than outdoors. He used artificial colors and flat un-modeled figures defined by a broad boundary to avoid the reality of photography (Pollack). This concentration on flat shape and structure resulted in paintings that were more conceptual than realistic, evoking the medieval symbols and etched glass panels that he adored so much. Gauguin was effectively rejecting the entire history of European painting by discarding Renaissance standards of modeling and viewpoint in order to restore to a more basic or pre-modern mode of communication that he felt to be more accurate.
After attending preaching about Jacob fighting the angel, “Vision After the Sermon” artwork depicts a couple of Breton peasant women who get a mystical vision. Contrasting with Impressionism’s plain slice of life, the painting depicts a made-up scene based on the artist’s ideas rather than what he saw firsthand (Zhang and Wang). The priest is visible on the right border of the image, and the women are all wearing blindfolds, underlining the idea that what we see is a creation of our thoughts rather than actuality. Gauguin’s departure from naturalism and metamorphosis to a new Synthetic style, which entailed working from memory and imagination to reduce the essence, was announced by the Vision after the Sermon. Surrealism, which advocated a spiritual approach, impacted the artwork.
These works of art show how two outstanding authors broke the standards and created as they pleased. These authors can be compared even though they talked about the production of their works in different ways. Van Gogh no longer relied on the sensitivity of colors so that behind each color and figure, there was a feeling and meaning. At the same time, Gauguin rejected many early accepted standards and tried to change reality as much as possible on his canvas.
These paintings can be compared because the color palette is similar to them, but the overall mood is entirely different. Van Gogh’s painting looks more realistic and attractive as he used his technique of bright colors that immediately catches the eye. While Gauguin moved away from reality a little in his work, he was also able to convey a more serious mood with a similar color scheme.
When choosing between these paintings, many people would prefer Van Gogh’s work as it is more attractive in terms of colors. However, Gauguin’s artwork has a more hidden meaning and is generally religious, which always carries a profound connotation and message to the viewer. A Van Gogh painting also has meaning and a story behind it; however, it is not taken as seriously as “Vision After the Sermon.” Each person will find something of their own in some of these works, but for the most part, people will be divided into two groups: those who are for Van Gogh and others who are for Gauguin.
To summarize, instead of drawing influence from historical flat styles, Paul Gauguin produced a “primitive” picture based on simple flat shapes confined by wide margins that contradicted Renaissance perspective and drawing norms. Vincent Van Gogh used rich colors and rich, vibrant painterly to communicate deep emotion. Van Gogh’s use of exciting color, or, as he later described it, excessive shade, in which the artist infused his canvases with his sentiments, is a feature of what would later be known as Expressionism. Gauguin disregarded many of Impressionism’s ideas. He liked to paint from imagination instead of from observation, and he preferred to finish his paintings indoors rather than outside. Some of these works will appeal to different people, but for the most general, individuals will be categorized into two parts: those who support Van Gogh and those who support Gauguin.
Works Cited
Gerson, Alan. “The Night Café Redux: A Study of Sordidness, From Arles to the US Courts.” Case W. Res. J. Int’l L. 49, 2017: 197.
Pollack, Maika. “Odilon Redon, Paul Gauguin, and Primitivist Color.” The Art Bulletin 102.3, 2020: 77-103.
Van Gogh, Elisabeth Duquesne. Personal recollections of Vincent van Gogh. Courier Dover Publications, 2017.
Zhang, Xiaonan, and Bingying Wang. “An Analysis of the Mysticism Behind Gauguin’s Paintings.” 4th International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2020). Atlantis Press, 2020.
Reading someone’s personal correspondence always leaves a sense of learning a particularly intimate part of the individual’s life, namely, the emotions and ideas that are typically concealed from prying eyes of the public. Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo and his friend Paul Gauguin, another famous artist, convey a distinctive emotion of warmth and friendliness that makes them particularly touching and personal. Though addressing mostly trivial issues and various challenges that Van Gogh had to overcome, these letters reveal the supportive nature of the relationships between him and his brother, as well as him and his fellow artist, Gauguin.
The letters that Van Gogh sent to his brother and friend, as well as those that he received from them, convey a profound sense of closeness, empathy, and trust. Though touching upon mostly mundane issues, these letters represent the role that strong relationships with his brother and Gauguin played in Van Gogh’s life. Furthermore, the correspondence provides rare and quite exciting details about Van Gogh’s artistic process and his vision (Bailey, 2021). Delving into the artist’s imagination and viewing the word through his lens was a particularly inspiring part of the overall experience. Though Van Gogh mentions not only the wonders of creating art but also the associated challenges, the magic of this experience has an enormous staying power for the reader.
Despite touching upon rather mundane concerns, Van Gogh’s letters, as well as those of his brother and his friend Paul Gauguin, convey the sense of support and understanding. Reading the letters evokes the feeling of familiarity with the artist, his brother, and his friend. Moreover, the letters help discover peculiar details about Ban Gogh’s artistic process. Therefore, the specified correspondence represents a particularly unique remnant of Van Gogh’s life worth studying closer.
Reference
Bailey, M. (2021). The illustrated letters of Vincent Van Gogh. Batsford.
American poet Emily Dickinson was renowned for her distinct voice and subjects that probed the intricacies of life, death, and spirituality. Death is a recurring theme in Dickinson’s poetry, not as an end but as a metamorphosis that leads to the afterlife. She often personified death as a pleasant and friendly figure since she saw it as a private and intimate experience. Poems like “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” which portrays death as a carriage ride carrying the speaker toward a blissful afterlife, reflect this philosophy (Cooney, 2000a). Dickinson frequently challenges preconceived notions about death and portrays it as a peaceful, transformational experience in her poems.
In order to arouse emotions and convey deeper truths about life and death in her poems, Dickinson employs use of vivid natural imagery. She finds comfort and peace in nature, but it also reminds her how fleeting life is. Dickinson frequently alludes to the passing of time and the cycles of life and death using environmental imagery, such as the changing seasons (Cooney, 2000a). She utilizes a bird as a metaphor for hope in poems like “Hope is the thing with feathers,” highlighting the notion that nature is a potent force that uplifts and nurtures the human soul.
Van Gogh’s Art
A Dutch post-Impressionist painter named Vincent van Gogh revolutionized modern art with his inventive use of color and shape. He is frequently considered one of the 19th century’s most significant artists. The intense use of color and impetuous brushstrokes that portray a potent emotional intensity are characteristics of Van Gogh’s artwork. He held that the two main goals of art were to communicate with the audience and to allow the artist to express their feelings (Cooney, 2000b). He incorporated intense colors, thick impasto, and forceful brushstrokes to evoke movement and the artist’s inner turmoil. His pieces, including “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers,” are excellent illustrations of his emotional expressiveness and his capacity to employ color to evoke mood.
Van Gogh disregarded the conventional academic approach to art and strove to develop a new, more emotive, and individual style. He was influenced by the Impressionists’ art, who rejected the period’s academic approach in favor of capturing the transitory moments of contemporary life. Van Gogh developed this strategy further by enhancing the sensation of passion and movement using color and brushstrokes (Cooney, 2000b). He believed that everyone should have access to art and that the goal of art was to elicit a response from the audience.
Importance
With her distinctive writing style and unorthodox subject matter, Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the most significant poets of the 19th century. She has cemented her place in the canon of American literature. Because of Dickinson’s inventive language use and her consideration of issues like mortality and the power of nature, her poetry continues to have an impact on contemporary writers and readers. However, the most interesting for me is Vincent van Gogh, because he revolutionized modern art with his inventive use of color and shape. Van Gogh’s paintings are among the most enduring and potent creations of the 19th century due to his vivid use of color, impetuous brushstrokes, and emotional intensity (Cooney, 2000b). His opposition to academic art and his conviction that everyone should have access to art have left a lasting impression on the art world.
References
Cooney, W. (2000a). Emily Dickinson: A Poetic Genius Looks at Death. In The Quest for Meaning. University Press of America.
Cooney, W. (2000b). Vincent Van Gogh: Risking My Life for Art. In The Quest for Meaning. University Press of America.
The fates of talented persons often have similar milestones that affect their personal development and interest in art. Referring to Franz Kafka and Vincent van Gogh, it is necessary to state that these prominent personalities influenced the art of the 19th-20th centuries significantly. The lives of these men and their artistic paths seem to be connected in terms of inner motives that influenced their creative works.
In this context, it is important to discuss in detail the unique connection that can be observed in relation to Vincent van Gogh and Franz Kafka. Although van Gogh and Kafka realized their creative intentions in different areas of art, they had the remarkable connection in terms of sharing problems in family relations; having problems in personal relations; struggling to find their identity and place in the life with the focus on religion; having problems with the psychological and mental health; sharing the dramatic end of the short life; and receiving the public recognition only after the death.
Kafka and van Gogh were born during the late part of the nineteenth century, and they became the most intriguing representatives of the European culture. Van Gogh was born in Zundert, Netherlands, in 1853, and he became one of the most prominent Dutch Post-Impressionist painters. In spite of the fact that the painter was not famous during his life, the critics admitted his unique style and passion reflected in used colors and techniques (Brower, 2000, p. 180).
Kafka was born in Prague in 1883. He grew in the German-speaking family of Jews, and he had to conceal his interest in literature. As a result, Kafka’s complicated and absurd works became known to the wide public only after his death (Epstein, 2013, p. 49). Thus, the contribution of these talents to the culture of the nations cannot be overestimated. However, the detailed discussion of the artist and writer’s life and works is necessary to conclude about their unique connection.
The Life and Works of Vincent van Gogh
The birth of Vincent van Gogh was marred by the fact that he was born on the day of the first anniversary of his elder brother’s death. The parents of young Vincent spoke much about that child. Hyams notes that the child experience could significantly contribute to developing the overwhelming feel of guilt and to progress of the posttraumatic disorder in Vincent (Hyams, 2003, p. 95). Although the parents cared for the boy’s future, they lacked to demonstrate the enough support and love, and Vincent had rather problematic relations with his mother (Potter, 2003, p. 1194). As a result, Vincent felt he could not meet the parents’ expectations, he felt guilt and anxiety, and he often suffered from insomnia, self-doubt, and depression.
Vincent tried to find himself in life while following both paths typical for his family: the art dealer’s path and the clergyman’s path. However, these paths could not satisfy Vincent. Thus, the man travelled much and almost eked out his existence. Nevertheless, Vincent seemed to find appeasement in creating art works. In the 1880s, Vincent started to practice in painting, and his first works were significantly influenced by the other artists (Brower, 2000, p. 180). Thus, the young artist started to paint peasant characters, and his works were rather peaceful in their nature.
However, the real breakthrough in the artist’s style was associated with his latest works. Van Gogh focused on using extremely bright colors. The Yellow House (1888) and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888) painted in yellow and orange colors belong to this period. Van Gogh concentrated on expressing his visions and feelings in the art works (Brower, 2000, p. 181). As a result, the objects in paintings represent the images of Vincent’s broken soul in a form of flowers’ broken stems or dead trees.
Although being involved in painting, Van Gogh suffered from signs of the mental illness, and he needed treatment as well as the moral support. The only person who could help him was his brother Theo (Wilfred Niels, 2004, p. 23). The situation was complicated with the fact that Van Gogh’s works were not actively sold or popular. The feeling of loneliness, anxiety, and depression led to the artist’s suicide in 1890.
The Life and Works of Franz Kafka
Since childhood, Franz Kafka needed to resolve the difficult question of his identity and to adapt to the family rules set by the despotic father. Kafka experienced difficulties with understanding his role within the Czech majority of Prague. Durval notes that Kafka could not feel protection and security in the society because of being the German-speaking Jew, and he could not find the support at home because of his tyrannical father (Durval, 2011 p. 230). To address the father’s expectations, Kafka had to follow the career path that was in contrast to his own visions and implications.
Kafka struggled to find the balance between his isolation at home, desire to write, and desire to win the father’s recognition. Thus, the young man became interested in his origins and began to study more about the Jewish culture (Lin-Xian, 2009, p. 26). The results of the writer’s daily thoughts on Judaism and concerns about his place in the world were reflected in such his works as “The Metamorphosis” (1912) and The Trial (1914).
The writer tried to find the relief in his writings where he represented inner feelings on the relations with the father and society. These works seemed to reflect the author’s possible psychological problems and depressions because the idea of the suicide is observed in many Kafka’s works (Hung, 2013, p. 437). The works reflected the author’s concerns in a form of absurd, illogical, and darkened images.
Kafka’s writings became known to the public because of the efforts of his best friend Max Brod who published the author’s works after his death without Kafka’s permission. Kafka’s grotesque works became extremely popular among the audience and critics (Epstein, 2013, p. 49). Later, the author’s unique style became known as “Kafkaesque”.
The Unique Connection Shared by Franz Kafka and Vincent van Gogh
Referring to the research on Kafka and van Gogh’s life and works, it is possible to state that the artist and writer’s personality were significantly traumatized by their relations in families. The religious parents of Vincent were focused on the tragedy in their family, and his depressive mother impacted the development of the boy significantly. In his turn, Kafka experienced difficulties in communication with his father who was rather tyrannical (Durval, 2011 p. 230). The results of such family relations were the feel of guilt in both men who saw they could not realize the expectations of their parents.
The problems in the personal life were also typical for the artist and the writer. Thus, during his life, Van Gogh had no opportunity to become happy because he fell in love with his widowed cousin, but he was rejected, and the artist found the support in Clasina Maria Hoornik, a prostitute suffering from alcoholism who became Van Gogh’s model (Brower, 2000, p. 181). Kafka also had dramatic love stories. The writer was engaged several times, but he seemed to break relationships at any cost. Still, Milena Jesenska, a translator and editor, played the key role not only in the writer’s personal life but also in his creative life because she helped in publishing Kafka’s writings.
Both van Gogh and Kafka experienced problems with determining their identity and finding the place in the life. Van Gogh found his solace in the religion. Kafka also discussed religion as the way to determine his identity because he suffered from being a German-speaking Jew among the Czech population. Therefore, the religion and the creative work became the important steps toward their identity.
However, a variety of child complexes and traumas caused psychological and mental disorders in both men. Van Gogh needed the regular therapy during his latest part of the life and thought about suicide (Hyams, 2003, p. 96). Kafka also suffered from the obsessive thoughts about suicide (Hung, 2013, p. 437). These sufferings and ideas were reflected in Van Gogh’s works painted in an eccentric manner and in Kafka’s hypochondriac writings.
As a result, both men shared the dramatic end in their short lives. Van Gogh committed suicide because of his psychological instability, and Kafka seemed to die from the moral and physical exhaustion in spite of such conditions as tuberculosis and starvation. Neither the artist nor the writer was publicly recognized before their death. This aspect adds more dramatism to van Gogh and Kafka’s life stories.
Conclusion
Today, Vincent Van Gogh and Franz Kafka are the most recognizable representatives of their art movements developed in the 19th-20th centuries. Although their lives were not actually connected, their life experiences and visions of the world represented in the art can be compared to demonstrate the unique connection shared by the authors.
References
Brower, R. (2000). To Reach a Star: the creativity of Vincent van Gogh. High Ability Studies, 11(2), 179-205.
Brower analyzes van Gogh’s creativity with refereces to his personal writings like letters and notes.
Durval, J. (2011). On Franz Kafka’s “Letter to my father”. International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 20(1), 229-232.
The authors discusses Kafka’s letter to the father as the source of the inoaftion about the writer’s relations in the family and identity.
Epstein, J. (2013). Is Franz Kafka overrated? Atlantic, 312(1), 48-50.
The author discusses the nature of praise for Kafka’s works.
Hung, R. (2013). Caring about strangers: A Lingisian reading of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 45(4), 436-447.
The author discusses the philosophical question of caring about a stranger with references to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”.
Hyams, H. (2003). Trauma post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the case of Vincent Van Gogh. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 8(2), 95-107.
In the article, the author defends the vision that Van Gogh suffered from the PTSD that caused his unique painting style and further suicide.
Lin-Xian, L. (2009). Analysis of the aesthetic artistic characteristics in The Trial. US-China Foreign Language, 7(9), 25-32.
The author discusses the receptive aesthetics of Kafka’s work in the article.
Potter, P. (2003). Vincent Van Gogh. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 9(9), 1194-1196.
The author discusses the personal background behind the artist’s works.
Wilfred Niels, A. (2004). The illness of Vincent van Gogh. Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 13(1), 22-43.
The author analyzes the historical data to conclude about the artist’s mental illness.
The two paintings under consideration, Van Gogh’s Women Picking Olives, and Breton’s The Weeders, have much in common, despite choosing dramatically different techniques, reflecting a change of approach, but achieving equally lovingly appreciative results.
These works, roughly 20 years apart in time of creation, are similar in that they portray women engaged in agricultural labor, with affection and appreciation for the people as well as the landscape. They are very different in their emphasis on representation and their technique. Both evoke a season, a place, and a whole occupation and way of life, effectively.
Jules Breton’s painting was painted in 1868, meaning that the artist was roughly 42 years of age, a mature age for the era. He was born in 1827, in the second generation dealing with the aftereffects of the Revolution.
France was still struggling to handle the challenge of civil self-government after all the violence of previous decades. Breton came to adulthood during the rule of Napoleon III, who did expand the vote, although there were still great class and economic divisions in society 1.
The subject of The Weeders, an oil on canvas, is the very class of people who were most oppressed in the ancient regime, peasant laborers . A group of six women, dressed simply in coarse clothing and head scarves, crawl, kneel, stoop and rest in a flat field.
They pull small weeds from among the low-growing crop in the light of what, logically, must be a dawning sun. Their forms are all well-rounded suggesting that they are well-fed. Their faces are suggested with some hints of beauty.
In the background are other weed pickers, similarly occupied. The skies are filled with small rosy clouds and a crescent moon. There is nothing between them and the horizon except a few trees.
The style is realistic, in that the viewer has no doubt that the object in the picture are human figures, female, and that they are standing on the ground in a real landscape. In this, Breton hearkens back to the academic realism of earlier decades. However, it is impossible not to infer some influence from the movement which had resulted in the Salon des Refuses in 1863.
For example, the subject matter is not the heroic subject matter of the past: generals, battle scenes , nobility, citizen heroes, and religious scenes or moral allegories. Instead, the subject matter is the everyday, the ordinary, the scenes that anyone could see along any road.
Additionally, the angle at which the viewer sees the subjects is also not the distant, all-seeing, all-knowing studio vantage point of previous decades. The angle of view is like that of a photographer crouching down at the level of the laborers. They ignore their observer in the painting, but when Breton observed them, the subjects would have had to be able to see him.
Their obliviousness suggests that either the scene was originally captured with the fledgling technology of photography, or set up in the artist’s studio, or represents a genius memory for shadow and positioning on the part of the artist. Breton emphasizes the horizontality of his scene, and the sense of being at the same level as the subjects by stretching the width of the canvas, which is 28×50 inches.
The tradition of academic painting called for a flawless surface where brushstrokes were invisible to the eye. That is not true entirely in The Weeders. Especially in the sky, the brushstrokes are visible.
The colors are muted, which recalls the academic tradition, but this fits with the near darkness at daybreak in which the women do their work. However, the artist has managed to illuminate the faces of the laborers with the low-level light from the rising sun. This gives them a dignity that is consonant with his pattern of honoring French rural life with his paintings 2.
The Women Picking Olives, by Van Gogh, is dated at about two decades later . In the 1880s, the Impressionist movement, arguably formalized with an 1872 exhibition, had had nearly two decades for artists and their aficionados to get used to the new way of seeing. This is reflected in Van Gogh’s choices, and in the fact that he showed the painting to Gaugin, who approved of it 3.
The painting is narrower at 28×36, and the orientation is more vertical. The scene is analogous to that in The Weeders; the work of agricultural laborers. The three equally simply dressed women are doing similar heavy labor, up on ladders or standing on the grass.
The time of day is not instantly apparent, because we don’t see the sun or moon. The color scheme of the entire picture is relatively muted, or perhaps sun-bleached. Van Gogh apparently made several versions of this scene, each with a slightly varying choice of color intensities 4 .
This particular one, in the Metropolitan Museum, has low contrast between the lavender grey of the grass, the sage green of the leaves, and the peachy-pink of the sky. However upon closer inspection, the pink color of the sky seems perhaps to be, as in the Breton painting, an indication of dawn or dusk.
A very close inspection reveals that there is a golden band of color at the horizon, probably representing the glow of the sun as it rises above the horizon. Since olives grow only in the hottest, sunniest areas, dawn makes more sense for this kind of strenuous, finicky work.
What distinguishes this painting most obviously is the difference in technique. Van Gogh is demonstrating a very different approach to portraying a parallel scene filled with ground, sky, plants, and people.
His brushwork is obvious, and in fact it appears that a single curving brushstroke makes up, or almost makes up, each branch or a trunk of the gnarled and ancient-looking olive trees. In the orchard that Van Gogh painted, it is quite possible that the trees were a century old, perhaps more, and pruned into the tortured and twisted shapes shown in the painting, by the actions of many generations of arborists.
It looks as though each blade of the long grass is another individual swirling brushstroke. This pattern is repeated right up into the sky, with the clouds also made up of crescent shaped brushstrokes in mixed colors of pink and white. This repetition makes the picture almost an abstraction because, in real life, every tree, every branch, every person has its own unique texture.
However, the uniform brushstrokes and even the direction that the brushstrokes follow (bottom right to upper left), make a statement about the unity of the plants, the sky, and the small figures working in them. The identity of the people in the Breton painting could, conceivably, be confirmed if one had a photo or another painting of any of the models.
On the other hand, this is not possible with the Van Gogh. His models are one step away from being blobs of color and shape. They are symbolic of the laborer as an idea, rather than being individuals with names, faces, lives, and dreams or complaints about their lives.
To compare them is to see painting at two different moments in its development. Breton is moving away from realism and obsessive attempts to duplicate the appearance of reality in every detail no matter how small. He is moving away from art as a recorder of the elite, the aristocratic or the politically important.
Van Gogh is firmly moving towards the direction of an equally obsessive attempt to capture the impression, the squint-eyed, blurry-vision overall glimpse of a scene. This is the goal of the Impressionists, and Van Gogh was clearly pursuing it.
The two paintings both attempt to represent reality, as the artist saw it. The two paintings preserve the elements in the scene that the artist value most and wish to convey. However, Van Gogh has elected to suppress detail in preference for shape and color and the impression of movement, perhaps of a dawn tide of wind. In this, he is in a completely different school of technique from his elder.
Both paintings are vivid evocations of a way of life that was to change drastically over the next generation, as people moved to cities and industry took over the landscape. Both paintings represent the labor itself as dignified, worthy of being the subject of the most careful, affectionate, and accomplished portrayal.
Born in 1853, Vincent Wilem Van Gogh was one of the renowned artists of the 19th century. According to Callow (1990), Van Gogh was a painter “whose work was notable for its beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color with a far reaching influence on 20th century art” (13).
The painter began drawing at an early age. He continued to do as he grew up until the time when he decided to pursue the painting art during his late twenties. He produced some of his most renowned paintings in his last two years before he died at the age of 37.
The pace at which he produced his paintings attracts the attention of Bernard (2004) who notes, “he produced more than 2100 artworks consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1300 watercolors, drawings, sketches, and prints” (p.45).
Other major works of the artist consist of self-portraits, still-life paintings of various images such as sunflowers, wheat fields, and cypresses.
Being a member of the clergy constituted one of the major aspirations of Van Gogh’s, which made him toil as a messenger in the quarry section of Belgium in 1879. However, while working this way, he still pursued the dream of paintings in that he sketched people.
Later, he was to release his major paintings that he referred to as potatoes eaters in 1885, which was later followed by the release of other paintings.
The inspirations behind the paintings of Van Gogh have attracted scholarly interest with some scholars arguing out that his mental challenges formed a major source of his painting aspirations.
This paper argues that van Gogh’s paintings were inspired by unanswered love that fueled his artistic creativity rather than mental illness. The paper also paper introspect the part that romance played in his life and his artistic works with a focus on how he depicted women in is paintings.
Romance: Unanswered Love that fueled Van Gogh’s Artistic Creativity
Van Gogh was one of the artists of the 19th century who has captured the attention of many people.
Some of the creative people preceding him such as Andy Warhol made inventive works that proved hard to disconnect truth from the legends that characterized the persona and the life of the painting creator.
This argument was perhaps not the case of the van Gogh’s paintings. He was able to articulate his personality and character well in his paintings.
Callow (1990) supports this argument by adding, “Van Gogh’s unbridled passion and ecstatic contemplation of life, nature, and art, his intense spirituality and religious zeal, his generous, ardent, and sincere disposition are well showcased in his painting and letters” (32).
Although judging the character of an artist is a hard endeavor, which helps to give an indication of the main aspirations of the artist’s works, for the case of Van Gogh, it is relatively easier since most of his letters, for instance the letters exchanged between him and his brother Theo, were written in the first person.
Nevertheless, as Bernard (2004) maintains, “Van Gogh’s letters offer us a poignant and lucid view into the remarkable artist’s personal struggles and complex psychology, but little objective information from other parties has been found” (p.46).
The letters are responses to the experiences in a world in which Van Gogh lived. This world embraces people living with their loved ones as reflected in the 1889 painting by Van Gogh.
However, it is arguable that Van Gogh felt isolated from this world by virtue of his commitments to “unwavering, almost evangelical, artistic mission, and his affliction” (Bernard 2004, 55).
From the painting shown in fig 1 below, it is evident that Van Gogh had a particular perception of how romance can be portrayed from an emotional perceptive as opposed to through actual pictures.
Source (McQuillan 2000)
In a letter to Theo in 1885, Van Gogh supports the above argument when he wrote stating, “Romance and romanticism are our era, and one must have imagination sentiment in painting” (McQuillan 2000, 3).
Referring to fig 1, the romance between a woman and a man is evident in the painting in the context of the mood created by the painting.
The choice of hue and implied texture of the painting suggests a situation in the life of the persons shown in the painting thus prompting one party to support the other party emotionally. These aspects are associated with romantic artistic works.
Arguably, the painting of each of the characters in the work with respect to the subject matter is astounding.
Perhaps the man is in agony, and desires the help of the woman located strategically just behind him extending hands to imply the degree to which she sympathizes with the situation of the man.
From the approach of romanticism, the depiction of a character extending hands open to embrace the other shows the extent of preparedness to accord help. As an artistic work, painting is a reflection of what runs in the mind of people through the power of imagination of an author.
This assertion overrules the influence of mental illness that affected Van Gogh, which some scholars argue as influencing his paintings that portray romance such as the one shown in fig 1.
The validity of this argument has the implication of suggesting that Van Gogh’s tireless efforts, amid his mental challenges, which some people believe to have culminated to his suicide, rested on the wave of romanticism that influenced many literary works of scholars living in his time.
Callow (1990) subscribes to this school of thought by further suggesting, “Van Gogh’s dedication to articulating the inner spirituality of man and nature resulted in dramatic, imaginative, rhythmic, and emotional canvases that convey far more than the mere appearance of the subject” (p.91).
Directly congruent with this position, it is also arguable that Van Gogh’s wits in the selection and deployment of spontaneous gestural relevance of representative tints together with smears were artistic tactics of portraying prejudiced feelings.
One can put such emotions on a piece of canvas if they are consistent and run articulately in the mind of a painting creator.
The underlining argument here is that themes that are showcased in a painting or any other artistic work are a description of personality, norms, and ideologies to which the creator of the painting subscribes.
A painting creator wants such celebrity and principles to remain strongly anchored in the history of humankind. Arguably, Van Gogh is one of such talented artists whose romantic nature of some of his painting cannot be contested.
Upon revisiting the subject matter of the painting in fig1, it is clear that Van Gogh valued the role of romanticism to alleviate loneliness. However, as suggested by the painting, according to Van Gogh, women are presented as tools for alleviation of men’s loneliness.
This argument perhaps shows the sexual orientation of Van Gogh although it is a point of contest in the modern world where issues of equality of all human beings irrespective of their sexual inclinations are standing out as significant matters that shape the cultures of people.
The interrelation of romance and loneliness in addition to how the two influenced some of the paintings of Van Gogh such as the one shown in fig 1 is evident in Callow’s (1990) words. He argues, “Van Gogh’s fear of being alone was central to his disturbed outlook on life” (Callow 1990, 67). The need for companionship is well developed by the disturbed man of the painting shown in fig1.
The obvious solution to these problems is the woman shown behind the man. Indeed, the feeling of loneliness became incredibly amplified in the last part of Van Gogh’s life when he became hospitalized while his mental state was at the lowest point.
This experience perhaps speaks volumes of the theme of romance running in some of his paintings. Consequently, it sounds sufficiently imperative to infer that an artistic work is a reflection of one’s direct or indirect experiences in life.
Therefore, it highlights the painter’s position on what should be done to rectify certain disturbing challenges of humanity. Need for love and embracement is one of these solutions as suggested by some of paintings by Van Gogh such as the one shown in fig 2 below.
The figure shows a man and woman providing companionship to one another in what is seemingly a peaceful family having a nice evening. The painting was done in 1889.
Fig 2: Source (McQuillan 2000)
Part played by Romance in Van Gogh’s Life and in His Artistic Works
As argued in the previous section, feeling of loneliness is a major contributor of the artistic work of Van Gogh in the manner in which he portrayed romance in his paintings and writings.
Arguments on how the issues culminating into romanticizing of Van Gogh’s paintings were reflected in his artistic works have been developed in the previous sections.
Consequently, no further treatments of the same are considered in this section. Rather, dedication is made to discuss how romance influenced Van Gogh’s life.
The perceptions of lack of romance in his life rendered Van Gogh lonely. Bernard (2004) supports this assertion by further noting, “Van Gogh’s fear for being alone was central to his disturbed outlook on life” (p.49).
The manifestation of these fears is evidenced by the constant pull for suicide that he possessed although many critics associated it with his deteriorating mental conditions. Van Gogh even sought refuge for his situations by indulging in alcoholism.
The central argument here is that alcoholism was a major contributing factor for his demise. This problem was related to his lack of a romantic life. Van Gogh admitted, “he did not have any children…he viewed his painting as his progeny” (Bernard 2004, 17).
It is then not by surprise that Van Gogh could have sought companionship elsewhere in paintings in which he attempted to express his emotions speaking volume of the manner he perceived life.
Indeed, he even wrote to his sister explaining that his main desire was to paint a picture that would live through different generations, and which would act as a major aspiration.
To realize this dream, he continued to inform her sister, “…I mean that I do not endeavor to achieve this goal through photographic resemblance, but by means of our impassioned emotion” (McQuillan 2000, 5).
From this self-confession, it is arguable that Van Gogh paintings were a reflection of the emotions running deep inside him.
The evening painting of 1889 is then a depiction of how he felt concerning how couples in deep affection live to provide companionship to one another. Unfortunately, Van Gogh had not experienced this situation in his life.
Loneliness overwhelmed him to the extent that he observed, “to such a horrible extent that I shy away from going out” (McQuillan 2000, 7). Tantamount to the ways of life of people who are deeply indulged in alcoholism, Van Gogh did not live alone.
Alcohol formed a major share of his erratic behavior. It acted as one single medicine that accorded him a feeling of self-belief although it later destroyed him.
As a repercussion of its abuse, alcohol not only made him isolated from the rest of the people he lived with but also made him romantically lonely. The argument holds because “no one wanted to be near him because of his distressing effects” (Bernard 2004, 87).
Consequently, in the effort to run away from the true nature of companionship as an essential facet of people’s life, Van Gogh’s loneliness intensified with consequential increased impacts on the deterioration of his mental state.
The concerns and desire for him to mingle with other people are perhaps well evidenced by his 1888 painting The Night Café and the Dancehall. In particular, in this painting, the artist created an outstanding relief by describing what he perhaps thought a dancehall needed to have.
The attention of the painting admirer is caught up by the enhanced color and size of images of women. Does this mean that Van Gogh had a deep-seated belief that women should grace dancehalls? Response to this query is subject to discussions of portrayal of women in his paintings.
Presentation of Women in Van Gogh Paintings
In some of his paintings, women are portrayed as figures that provide glamour in homes and companionship to men. This hypothetical assertion can be developed by considerations of the analysis of some of Van Gogh’s paintings.
In this section, only three of these paintings are considered. These are The Potatoes Eater as shown in fig 3 and the paintings used previously in the discussions of this paper as shown in fig 1 and fig 2.
Fig 3: Source (Van Gogh Gallery 2003)
The Potato Eaters was finished in 1885. It is taken by many commentaries of the Van Gogh’s painting as one of his greatest artistic achievement. With regard to Bernard (2004), “Van Gogh wished to create his first masterpiece that could boost his reputation as a developed artist” (27).
The noble goal that Van Gogh wanted to attain was to paint human figures that were not awkward. He needed to come up with ones, which existed in the natural form. Therefore, it implies that he painted a picture that conformed to his interpretation of his environment in which he lived.
Upon a quick look at the fig 3, the painting comprises five figures sitting around a table. Four of these figures are women. Although the painting depicts people in a dark lighted room, the emotions of the persons residing in the room are mixed.
They come out shining brightly. Indeed, the intensity of the figures is so enormous that an admirer of the painting can hear a conversation that ensues among the five figures.
Considering the strategic positioning of the male and the attention that female figures have towards the male counterparts, it is evident that the male figure is in charge of the conversations taking place.
This strategy perhaps explains males’ domineering power in the period in which Van Gogh lived.
The unevenness of the number of figures portrayed in fig 3 in terms of gender shows that male figures could take charge of more than one woman. The painting shows a number of features.
They include rafter boards, picture frame hanging from the darkened wall, a female figure pouring out brew similar to that of coffee, and a table that has some weathered edges among others.
These aspects make an admirer of the painting develop a perception that the figure resides in the home depicted in the painting.
The female figures depict mature women. Could this possibly mean that they could all be the wives to these male figures? Should this be the case, it means that Van Gogh was influenced by the societal norms of the late 1880s, which welcomed the practice of polygamy.
In the history of evolution of women roles in the societies, it is until 1930s that women roles in the paid jobs began to be recognized.
Women were mainly accustomed to domestic chores including sewing during their free times after accomplishing other tasks such as cooking and taking care of children. Coincidentally, this case happens to be the theme developed by the evening painting shown in fig 2.
In the period of history of women in the times of Van Gogh, women were principally the caretakers of their men. They attended to their physical and emotional needs. It is not surprising that fig.1 shows a distressed man with a woman behind him.
The woman is seemingly attending to the emotional needs of the man who seems missing something crucial in life.
In overall, the three paintings shown in fig 1, 2, and 3 respectively imply that women had some certain gender-determined roles and manners of living. Thus, Van Gogh was not shy to portray them this way.
Conclusion
Van Gogh is one of the renowned artists who lived for a very short time (1853 to 1890). Nevertheless, his paintings have survived his artistic talents especially by noting that he did not have any children to survive him.
It was held in the paper that many scholars contend that most of his paintings were inspired by his mental illness, which influenced the artistic impression of the paintings.
However, the paper took a different dimension to the analysis of Van Gogh’s paintings in that it argued that the paintings were inspired by his unanswered love that fueled his artistic creativity rather than his mental illness.
This position was supported by his writings admitting that his paintings were inspired by the needs to portray emotions through paintings that would live through centuries. The paper also held that the paintings’ depicted themes such as gender roles as determined by the society in which he lived.
Bibliography
Bernard, Bruce. Vincent by Himself. London: Time Warner, 2004.
Callow, Philip. Vincent van Gogh: A Life. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1990.
McQuillan, Melissa. Vincent Van Gogh and Nineteenth-Century Art. London: Routledge, 2000.
The works of Van Gogh and his use of color have often been studied chronologically demonstrating the shift in his usage of colors from his early paintings, which were dark and pessimistic, to the paintings of his mature career, where he has used lighter tones and brighter colors.
In the later stage, Van Gogh made a distinct use of complementary color scheme, which was a definite shift from the classical treatment of colors. This paper will compare and contrast two paintings, The Sower and The Night Café, and demonstrate the distinct style Van Gogh followed to use color for his paintings.
Expressive use of colors in distinctive complementary schemes has dominated many of the masterpieces created by Van Gogh. His correspondences to his brother during the 1882-85 demonstrate his obsession with the use of color in his work.
They demonstrate that Van Gogh’s concern and distinction between shades, tones, hue, and brightness of color, which formed the psychological basis of colors and themes of his paintings. The use of complementary colors, which became the signature of Van Gogh’s style, helped to intensify the mutual effect of the color scheme in the paintings. Van Gogh used basic colors and contrasting hues to increase firmness and depth of his paintings:
These things that are relevant to complementary colors, to the simultaneous contrasting and the mutual devaluation of complementary colors, are the first and most important issue: the second is the mutual influence of two similar colors, such as carmine and vermilion, or a pink-lilac and a blue-lilac. (Van Gogh Letter # 428, dated Oct. 1885. (Bekker and Bekker)
The use of primary colors and the use of their complementary colors, also known as secondary colors, is a basic technique used for impressionistic painting. When a primary color is put against a complementary color, it creates a contrasting color scheme, creating a powerful effect.
Van Gogh exploited this technique of creating a strong effect in his painting through juxtaposition of primary and complementary colors. Van Gogh’s fascination for complementary colors intensified as he shifted his focus from Dutch style to paintings that are more impressionistic.
Gayford (179) demonstrates Van Gogh’s heightened interest in colors, which created a symbolic language for the maestro. In another correspondence to his brother Theo, Van Gogh expressed his increasing obsession with colors: “Yesterday evening an extraordinary beautiful sunset of a mysterious, sickly citron color – Prussian blue cypresses against trees with dead leaves in all sorts of broken tones without any speckling with bright greens.” (Gayford 179)
Thus, colors create a symbolic language for Van Gogh, which helped his to determine the effect that wanted to create in his paintings. Given this understanding of Van Gogh’s philosophy of color, the essay then moves on to analyze two of his paintings and the treatment of colors in them.
The Sower demonstrates a man striding across a wheat field, with outstretched arms, appear in many of Van Gogh’s paintings and sketches. Philosophically, it has often been interpreted as the renewal of life; however, in this essay we will discuss the use of complementary color scheme of the paintings.
The particular picture that is discussed in this essay was painted in 1888, which stands out from all other paintings of sowers and creates a unique impressionistic creation of the cycle life in full summer (The Sower is shown in figure 1 below).
Figure 1: The Sower, 1888
The Sower, painted predominately in yellow and violet demonstrates the use of complementary colors by Van Gogh. Yellow is a primary color that is positioned against violet, one of its complements, and a mix of the other two primary colors, red and blue. Even though artists had knowledge of the effect two complementary colors could create, no one before Van Gogh experimented with it.
Primary colors, when juxtaposed with complementary colors, create a vibration and magnificence that is otherwise unattainable. Hence, when yellow is used against violet, it creates greater brightness and pureness of color than when painted with any other colors. Similarly, violet seems more lively and vigorous when put against yellow.
The Sower was painted when Van Gogh was living in Arles, in June 1888. The original Sower by Millet from which Van Gogh drew inspiration or his Sower believed that Millet created a painting in “colorless gray” and wanted to create a painting of the sower with colors (Bekker and Bekker).
In order to understand color contrast, consider putting orange against blue and orange against green. Orange is blue’s complement where blue is a primary color and orange is a secondary color created through mixing of the other two primary, red and yellow. Hence, the effect of brightness when orange and blue are used together is greater than when orange and green are used, wherein both are secondary colors. Moreover, the orange when put with green seem darker, almost a different color.
Hence, it can be observed that colors can change their hue and brightness depending on the colors with which they are used. Moreover, colors cannot be used singularly, without considering the other colors that are used. Colors cannot be judged in isolation. Hence, it is important to understand what colors are used along with the others and what affect it creates in the paintings. Knowledge of colors becomes the most important factor while studying Van Gogh’s form so impressionistic painting.
The painting of the yellow and violet together as an expression of light and darkness in the field is an extreme example of use of complementary colors in paintings. This helped in intensifying the brightness, saturation, and depth of the painting.
Van Gogh described his 1888 creation inspired from Millet’s painting, in one of his letters, as “painting from Millet’s drawings is more like translating them into another language than copying them” (Metzger and Walther 272). The colors used in the painting became reminiscent of his emotions and feelings. The colors demonstrated the dominant mood of the painter.
The Night Café is a poetic expression through colors, which demonstrates the harsher realities of modern life. Van Gogh’s obsession with colors intensified from 1885 until his death in 1890, resonant in his letters to his brother Theo. Each of the letters is evocative of the saturation, hue, and intensity of the colors from his palette. In describing the Night Café (figure 2) in his letter to Theo, Van Gogh associates passion with the use of two complementary colors – red and green:
I’ve tried to express the terrible passions of humanity with red and green. The room is blood red and dull yellow, with a green billiard table in the middle; there are four lemon yellow lamps casting an orange and green glow… In my picture of the night café, I’ve tried to convey the sense that the café is a place where one goes to ruin goes mad, commits crimes.
I’ve tried to express the powers of darkness, in a way, in this dive of a bar, through contrasts of delicate pink, blood red, wine red, and soft Louis XV green and Veronese green, in contrast with hard green-yellows and blue-greens – all this amid an infernal furnace of pale sulphur. (Letter#533, Bekker and Bekker)
The above description of the painting as expressed through Van Gogh’s words demonstrate the use of complementary colors in the painting, and the reason for the sue of the colors in their complementary best. Life’s juxtaposition is expressed through the oppositions of color that makes life as well as his paintings so pulsating.
In the Night Café Van Gogh has expressed the struggle of life through the juxtaposition of the two complementary colors – red and green. The violet and blue used in the painting depicts sadness and dreariness of modern nightlife, and
Figure 2: The Night Café
The painting shows maximum saturation of colors, where colors like red and green has been used without any hint of tint or shade. In the Night Café, Van Gogh used color in its purest form against its equally pure complementary. This is not seen in The Sower, where the colors were used symbolically, but not its purest hue.
The use of original hue in the Night Café sets is apart from other paintings, even though the technique used in both the pictures are similar. Nevertheless, both the picture reverberates with the infernal furnace of life though the use of yellow, which has been used to depict the sun in The Sower and the lamps in The Night Café. The difference between the two paintings is that the first is a depiction of continuity of life while that of the café describes a hellish existence.
Works Cited
Bekker, K.G. and A.Y. Bekker. 2009. “Color and Emotion — a Psychophysical Analysis of Van Gogh’s Work.” 2009. PsyArt. Web.
Gayford, Martin. The Yellow House.:Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks Provence. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. Print.
Metzger, Rainer and Ingo F. Walther. Van Gogh. Berlin: Taschen, 2008. Print.
Starry Night created by Vincent van Gogh is considered to be one of the most outstanding works of the world art. It was painted in 1889 during the author’s visit of Asylum. Modern culture centralizes this painting as the real masterpiece of the art history. The image under consideration can be analyzed from different angles of social spheres; it can be explained by the fact that the picture relates to the cultural change of its time period. Many different aspects of the time and culture contributed to the creation of Starry Night as well as to various interpretations of its meaning and its identity as one of the greatest works of the world art.
The culture of the XIX century differed by its global changes in the development of world art. The famous artists tried to evaluate the significance of the social spheres which influenced the nature of the art works. The cultural influence on the theme and manner of the work The Starry Night presented by the author can be evaluated through the complicated world look of its nature. It should be stressed that the features of the painting are a bit exaggerated. This fact is connected with the state of the spheres of social, political and cultural life and its impact on the nature of the work. Thus, cultural aspect influence and reflection in the character of the painting relates to the techniques used by its author. The analysis of the work shows the peaceful manner of its presentation. All the lines used in the painting are considered to be individual though not so realistic as they could be. Van Gogh considered this picture of his to be not so close to the real life. The exaggeration of the drawing lines is connected with the exaggeration of the cultural values of the author’s epoch. The time impact on the picture manner can be observed in the small details of the work. For example, it reflects the deep intercultural cooperation with the help of the deep sky and curving mirrors. The structure of the painting characterizes the condition of the social life in small villages and towns. The social and cultural aspects are here closely interrelated. A small town painted is covered by peaceful and calm atmosphere being involved into the magic theme of the night. Cultural imagination of the author is interrelated with the social stability illustrated on the picture. The theme of isolation and stress of the night power should be also regarded as the characteristic of the author’s life.
Religious aspect
Religious aspect is considered to be one of the central on the painting. Curving lines reflected mildness of the people’s relation to the sphere of culture. Dark colors of the picture underline the stage of the religious domination in the society. It is important to note that the aspect of religion can b easily evaluated through the centralization of the church depicted on the picture. The author reflected the need of the faith affirmation stressing the necessity of going out during the night ion order to admire the starry sky. The rejection of the religious views is considered to be opposed to the aspect of belief. The picture managed to show the darkness of the evening through shades of various colors. The central position of the church at the picture grabs attention on the religious theme of the work. Van Gogh tried to make the church stand out of the small houses of the village. This fact can be explained by the role of the religion in the center of human social life at that period. Considering the fact that the picture is not regarded as the realistic one it should be noted that Van Gogh reflected the glory of God seeing it in the deep blue sky. The stars of the picture stimulated the thoughts development concerning the meaning of the death and immortality.
The basic elements
The basic elements of the painting are considered to be the sky, village and cypress expressing the combination of the past and the future. From the artistic point of view all the elements of the picture are considered to be mystical. Despite the absence of sophisticated structure of the painting it seems to be not so simple expressing the direct meaning. The stars painted on the sky of the picture are associated with the soul immortality. (Vincent Van Gogh. Starry Night, 2008).
Geographical aspect
Geographical aspect of the picture is expressed through the fact that our earth is the planet if; it could be interesting from the author’s point of view to think of the Dutch or Greek matters contributing to the development of their schools and promoting them on many other planet of the world. The promotion of the basic theme of the picture was devoted to the idea of the picture highlighting not only within the neighboring countries but throughout the whole world. Van Gogh expressed his belief in the life after the death. That is why the picture is so mysterious. The symbolic representation of the afterlife illusion depicted by the author is the indication of the rebirth and cultural reformation. The religious theme of the work is one of the deepest on the picture. The soul transmigration underlined with the help of the exaggerated stars and curving mild lines highlight the traditional ideas of the Van Gogh epoch. (Ravlich, 2001).
Technological influence on the nature of the author’s work was not so vivid and profound. The illustration of the nature harmony puts the theme of technological progress on the second place. The author managed to depict the typical characteristic of the Dutch landscape through the steeple and village calm atmosphere. This picture can be regarded as the address of the author to the past in order to understand the present time.
Political and economical influence
Political and economical influence on the art of Van Gogh is reflected in the cypress depiction. Poor position of the state will never allow the author to worry about the national political and economical future. This sphere is shown as the process of the sufferings release. In this function cypress is considered to be the central figure of the picture. The impact on the work painted by van Gogh can be characterized by the dominance of the Northern Romantic painting of landscapes; this part of the cultural development of that epoch left a print on the manner of the picture presentation. The sky is considered to be a symbolic representation of the infinity. The play of light and rhythm of the picture involve the viewers of the work into the mystical atmosphere of the harmony between the nature and the society being united by the religious aspect of the painting.
It is important to stress that the painting is quite thought provoking though the first impression could be not so pleasant. The symbols exaggeration is the reflection of the time period of Van Gogh art career. The canvas of power and vitality swirl the sky. Van Gogh came to a conclusion that our planet will move to the heavens sooner or later. He sticks to the point that our world is not physical. The space and physical objects are incompatible that is why earth cannot have a physical nomination. He considered that all spheres of life are in space interconnected. It opens the way to the solution of the human knowledge fundamental problem. The author was influenced by the intellectual sphere of life; he considered that people’s most difficult problems of education, theology and philosophy could be solved due to the intellectual cooperation with the space.
The realism of the picture
The realism of the picture can be expressed through the play of the art techniques. This can be the main reason for the major influence of the painting on the work of modern artists throughout the whole world. Not only the sphere of art but the areas of architecture and music were inspired by the work The Starry Night. A lot of modern compositions are devoted to this very work of the author. Thus, the famous rapper whose name is 2pac devoted his song to the theme of the painting under consideration. One Spanish group promoted the songs and the views of the painting idea. Different spheres of social activities such as politics, economics, technology and intellectual science managed to be combined in the depiction of the magic night. The Starry Night left a print in the art development of the XIX century depicting all the peculiarities of the social activity. (Vincent Van Gogh. Starry Night, 2008).
Conclusion
Thus, the analysis of the painting managed to show that it covered various aspects of human life taking into account the change of the religion and culture. The picture The Starry Night underwent different interpretations as to the impact of the work on different sides of people’s activities. The theme of the space and its reflection on the problem solution was one of the central due to its magic and mysterious character. To sum up the idea of the analysis one should underline the strong belief of Van Gogh in the afterlife notion and his attempts to connect this belief with the real processes of life. The sphere of world art perceives the painting as the real masterpiece of the painting history.
References
A Brief Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings. Web.
One of the most popular, most respected, and most controversial visual artists of all time, Vincent Van Gogh remains an enigma and an inspiration to many artists who are not after fame and money decades after his works are first recognized. He inspired many works of art including pop music that until today use his story or themes in their compositions (Giancarlo Scalla, Don McLean, Joe Satriani).
Van Gogh’s Starry Night is also one of the most popular artworks of all time displayed today at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reproduced worldwide numerous times. It is considered his opus.
This paper shall try to provide an overview of Van Gogh’s Starry Night as a work of art with a personal narrative.
Discussion
Biographical Information
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born March 30 1853 and died July 29, 1890. He is a Dutch post-impressionist artist. He was born in Groot-Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. His parents are Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, a minister. Art and religion was a major preoccupation of the family. At age 15, he became an art dealer and was quite successful. He later became a Methodist minister’s assistant (Hammacher, 1985, p 61). Van Gogh became an art dealer with Goupil & Cie in The Hague. He later went to England to do unpaid work as a supply teacher and started sketching the harbor in Ramsgate. In a temporary post as a missionary in the village of Petit Wastes in Belgium, he recorded peasant miners’ lives in his drawings. Theo his younger brother advised him to take up arts by 1880. He went to Brussels to study with Dutch artist Wilhelm Roelofs who later encouraged van Gogh to study at the Royal Academy of Art. Van Gogh detested formal art education and most many forms of formalities.
He was further encouraged by his cousin-in-law painter Anton Mauve. In Nuenen, North Brabant in the Netherlands, in his parent’s home, Van Gogh painted with dark brown and using somber earth tones and in two years, he completed about 200 oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors.
In November 1885, van Gogh went to Antwerp and studied color theory using Peter Paul Reubens’ works, adding the colors carmine, cobalt, and emerald green (Hammacher, 1985, p 32). He was later exposed to Impressionist artists’ works and became friends with many Post-impressionist painters of his time in Paris. He later is said to have inspired Expressionism, of adding dimension aside from actual images to add emotion to works of art.
Artist’s Place
As an artist, Van Gogh was not much of a celebrity during his time unlike many other artist-celebrities of his caliber who enjoyed their place in society. Van Gogh was from a family of religious workers and mainly, art dealers. He had been exposed to Impressionism which was prevalent at that time. He saw how art was commercialized and resented it, but he had been a successful art dealer. He later on painted as a Post-impressionist artist but influenced expressionism that mostly came after his time. Van Gogh is considered one pioneer in his style using vivid colors and bold strokes, his swirling patterns notably, that defied prevailing norms in his time.
Title, Dimensions, and Type of Medium
The Starry Night is an oil on canvass painting done in 1889, with 73 cm X 92 cm in diameter (or 28 2/3” X 36 ¼”).
Genre
The work is considered a Post-impressionist, landscape done while Van Gogh was confined in a Sanitarium in Arles. It depicts the night view overlooking the village. It has been seen as a result of a private mystical experience. Soth (1986) believed it was a biblical episode, therefore religious, related to the Agony in the Garden. In his letter to his friend Emile Bernard, Van Gogh said, “The imagination is certainly a faculty which we must develop, one which alone can lead us to the creation of a more exalting and consoling nature than the single glance at reality – which in our sight is ever-changing, passing like a flash of lightning – can let us perceive… A starry sky, for instance — look that is something I should like to try to do,” (qtd by Soth, 1986, p 301).
He rendered several starry night paintings including the Café Terrace at Night and Starry Night Over the Rhone.
He was in the hospital St. Paul de Mausole at St. Remy when he painted Starry Night over an imaginative landscape. He stayed at the hospital for several weeks and sketched at the garden or from his cell window. Precisely, it was said to be painted between June 16 and 18 1889. It is drawn what he could see around and about him and from his imagination or memory bank. It is unclear for much of his work is generally religious or personal, but I would rather categorize it as personal in a way that it is depicted not as can be seen from the same point of reference or view but as can only be imagined by an artist, rendered not through the influence of Impressionist or post-impressionist images of his time but rather in distinct bold strokes using a swirling pattern that was not also previously seen in other paintings.
Source of Information and Inspiration
Information and information about Starry Night abound. As Van Gogh previously did other several starry night renditions, his letters to his friend Emile Bernard, brother Theo, sister Wilhelmina, and Eugene Boch provided insights into his painting.
To Bernard, he wrote, “I am still charmed by the magic of hosts of memories of the past, of a longing for the infinite, of which the sower, the sheaf is the symbols — just as much as before. But when shall I paint my starry sky, that picture which preoccupies me continuously?” (Pomerans, 1996, 492).
By September 9, he wrote to Wilhelmina, “…at present I want to paint a starry sky,” (Pomerans, 1996, 444) and later to Theo, “As for the Starry Sky,” I’d like very much to paint it, and perhaps, one of these nights I shall be in the same plowed field if the sky is sparkling,” (Pomerans, 1996, p 229). It is said that Van Gogh painted the enclosed field beneath his cell while the landscape is straightforward and the Alpilles Mountains exaggerated.
Narrative
Starry Night is a 2 dimension or flat composition as it is an oil painting on canvas. The strong line is depicted by the cypress tree in a steep pyramidal form at the foreground’s left side. The swirling light trails of the constellation of stars, however, seem to be the focus of lines on Van Gogh’s Starry Night, softening the rather imposing and misplaced pyramid of the cypress. The painting is balanced on one side by the crescent moon’s light spread throughout the landscape, the mountain range’s peaks, against the dark cypress on the foreground.
The use of yellow and blue had been linked to Eugene Delacroix’ Christ on the Lake of Gennesaret which used the “condemned colors” citron yellow and Prussian blue, thus, Van Gogh wrote, “the two colors which are most condemned, and with most reason, citron-yellow and Prussian blue. All the same I think he did superb things with them — the blues and the citron-yellows,” (Pomerans, 1996, 597).
Starry Night is a perfect example of Chiaroscuro, with an exaggerated lighting effect that overwhelms the whole painting. It provided deep texture that is real and deformed, exaggerated, and providing a character and depth that is difficult to place. The lighting and texture of Starry Night are at most mysterious and expressive.
I find Starry Night as an escape of Van Gogh from the harsh reality of his life. At that time, he was confined to a cell, a hospital cell for the mentally deranged. All his life, he had negative family associations except maybe, for Theo who supported him. He had been romantically broken-hearted several times and he has been grieving for a lot of things that include the injustices that surround his favorite subjects: peasants.
Conclusion
It is not so much about perfection, strict following of art forms and rules as well as the close depiction of reality that made Van Gogh’s paintings and the artist immortal. As can be seen on Starry Night, any unlearned viewer may dismiss it as substandard or neophyte work due to the onslaught of “abstract” and “avant-garde” -ism in the arts today. But for historical reasons, Van Gogh represented a true image of an artist who was not after fame and money but pursued the visual arts for the simple joy of sketching, drawing, and painting.
Van Gogh was devoted to showing light in dimmed settings. He viewed life itself as dark and reality as morbid. He abhorred formality and formal learning about art, but he had to suffer going to art schools to improve his craft, as he believed he had to learn a lot of things including anatomy, perspectives, and colors to draw the least.
Van Gogh’s Starry Night is a rendition of a world half-seen and half-imagined that brought him solitude, probably a sense of home away from the harsh reality of daytime and what is seen as reality.
Reference
Soth, Laren (1986) “Van Gogh’s Agony.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 68, No. 2, pp. 301-313.
Hammacher, A.M. Vincent van Gogh: Genius and Disaster, Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York, 1985.
Pomerans, Arnold. The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. Penguin Books: London. 1996.
