Starry Night, Saint-Rémy, by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) is well known for being the Dutch artist who cut off his ear after an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, and who later went mad and shot himself. He is also renowned for his highly distinctive paintings in a post-Impressionist style.

In February 1888 Van Gogh settled at Arles, in the South of France, which he found to be highly inspirational for his paintings, particularly of peasants at work and the scenery that reminded him of his native Netherlands. He hoped to found a community of artists at Arles, which is why he invited Gauguin and Emile Bernard to join him. However, after Gauguin fled back to Paris at Christmas 1888, alarmed by Van Gogh’s behaviour, the latter began to suffer increasingly bad attacks of mental illness that were probably associated with epilepsy.

In May 1889 he became a voluntary patient at a mental hospital in Saint-Rémy, not far from Arles, staying until not long before his death. In June 1889 he painted one of his best-known works in the garden of the hospital, the painting being entitled “Starry Night, Saint-Rémy”.

Van Gogh had always had a strong religious belief (he had worked as a lay preacher for two years as a young man) and this comes to the fore in “Starry Night”. The scene is of the small town at night, the church with its tall spire being the most noticeable building at the centre of the canvas. To the left a sinuous cypress tree snakes its way from the bottom to the top. The spire and the tree point the way to an extraordinary night sky in which a crescent moon and eleven stars are pictured with huge bright haloes. A roll of dark cloud dominates the centre of the sky and a brighter cloud bank hugs the hills.

The whole scene is painted in the familiar short strokes of Van Gogh’s mature style, with the colours intermingled in the form of a mosaic pattern. Van Gogh stated that he had been influenced in this painting by the woodcuts in an illustrated edition of a book by Charles Dickens, in which the design would have been made by the juxtaposition of short indentations in the wood medium. There is therefore a combination of pointillist, mosaic, and woodcut techniques here.

The sense one gets from “Starry Night” is of movement and flow. The tree’s branches weave from side to side, and even the hills seem to be rolling over each other, matched by the clouds that roll over them and create a unity of earth and sky. The higher clouds appear to roll into each other and form a distinct “yin and yang” arrangement that is pointed to by the church spire, which is of course an obvious Christian symbol.

The religious connotations of the painting are not hard to spot. The eye is drawn to the vastness of space with its massive stars that are brought close to the viewer’s gaze in a statement of continuity and connection between Earth and the heavens. The yin and yang image symbolizes the connectivity of all creation, such that nothing can be taken away without damaging the whole. The symbol from oriental philosophy is united with that from western Christianity such that they are in accord and not confrontation.

Van Gogh is also making a personal statement here, in lamenting the losses in his own life, such as the separation from Paul Gauguin, that have damaged him and made him less worthy as a human being. He wishes to recreate unity within himself and between the people who matter most to him, as well as with the Universe beyond.

It is easy to regard “Starry Night” as the work of a madman, with its swirls and impossible shapes, but that would be an unfortunate conclusion to draw. There is something essentially sane about this painting, in which every stroke of the brush, as well as the overall composition, has been put in place with careful deliberation. There is nothing slapdash or unintended here, but a huge sense of energy and purpose that comes across as evidence of Van Gogh transmitting his emotions and personal philosophy to the canvas.

There is no doubt that Van Gogh was deeply troubled at this time, but he had certainly not “lost his mind” when he painted “Starry Night”. He makes a vivid statement that was doubtless intended for his own benefit first and foremost, but its message can still be understood by anyone who chooses to read it.

“Starry Night, Saint-Rémy” can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

© John Welford