The piece chosen for this essay is close to that of “The Starry Night” in looks and in its namesake. “The Starry Night Over the Rhône” focuses on a …show more content…
He first started creating in adolescence. Around the age of sixteen, he began to create pieces involving a predominantly black and white color scheme. Colors would later be introduced to the artist as he mastered his ability to draw. At age twenty-nine, van Gogh studied under Anton Mauve. Mauve was a Dutch painter and was known most for his paintings in the style of realism. Mauve painted in the fishing village of Scheveningen, and later joined a group of artists called the Hague School. “There he became part of a group of artists known as the Hague school, whose members specialized in representing landscapes and scenes of rural life in the Netherlands. In 1885 he went to live in the country at Laren, near Hilversum, where he brought together a group of landscape painters who came to be known as the ‘Dutch Barbizon’” (Britannica). He was influenced by French painter, Camille Corot, whose paintings focused on the landscapes of France. This may be why a lot of Van Gogh’s paintings were landscapes rather than portraits. Van Gogh continued to study under other artists as the years went by, and honed his …show more content…
"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 discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colourful figurines of lovers in the foreground” (Shabi). This original description of the painting is accurate however, many believe that this description is more lighthearted than the actual painting that was produced. This is thought to be because of his deteriorating state of mind. Some believe if van Gogh had painted this when he originally described it to his brother, the painting would be brighter and more cheerful. But because he painted it a year later, with his mental illness increasingly worsening, “The Starry Night Over the Rhône” has more darkened undertones than originally