Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh
“Starry Night Over the Rhône” is one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings. The painting of Arles at night time was painted from the quay on the east side of the Rhône River. This spot was only a two-minute walk from the Yellow House which Van Gogh was renting at the time.
Van Gogh described this painting in a letter to his brother Theo:
” …. in short the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet. The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow, and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky, the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discrete paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas.”
The blue colours dominate and the city gas lights glimmer with an intense orange that is reflected in the water and the stars sparkle like gemstones. The light in the night sky fired Van Gogh’s imagination and resulted in some of his most famous paintings, including:
“Cafe Terrace at Night” at the Kröller-Müller Museum
“The Starry Night” at the Museum of Modern Art. NY
Before any of these paintings were painted, Van Gogh wrote to his sister:
“Often it seems to me, the night is even more richly coloured than a day”.
Van Gogh painted “Cafe Terrace at Night” first, in which the night sky was not the dominant feature, then with “Starry Night Over the Rhône” the night sky became more dominant. A few months later, Van Gogh was confined to a mental institution, where he painted “The Starry Night”, in which his distress was expressed in trees shaped like flames and the night sky and stars swirling in glorious colours. Over the course of these three paintings, the night sky had become the dominant feature.
Before his troubles, Van Gogh was pleased with his “Starry Night over the Rhone” painting, as he mentioned it admiringly several times in letters to his brother Theo and he made copies of it in a letter sketch as well as in a drawing. We can easily visualise Van Gogh smiling as he reflected on his Rhône painting which is akin to fireworks in a blue night sky.
Starry Night Over the Rhône:
- Title: Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Artist: Vincent van Gogh
- Year: 1888
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions 72.5 cm × 92 cm (28.5 in × 36.2 in)
- Museum: Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Vincent van Gogh:
- Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
- Born: 1853 – Zundert, Netherlands
- Died: 1890 (aged 37) – Auvers-sur-Oise, France
- Resting place: Cimetière d’Auvers-sur-Oise, Auvers-sur-Oise, France
- Nationality: Dutch
- Movement: Post-Impressionism
- Notable works:
- Starry Night
- Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Sunflowers
- Irises
- Self Portrait, dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin
- White House at Night
- The Night Café
- Self-Portrait as a Painter
- Self Portrait with Felt Hat
Starry Night Over the Rhône, reflections?
- Was this painting, Vincent van Gogh’s first attempt at creating star fireworks in a blue night sky?
~~~
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
-Vincent van Gogh
~~~
Photo Credit: 1) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 2) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 3) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons