Comparing Vincent Van Gogh And The Song Vincent

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Pages: 3

This is a response paper over Vincent Van Gogh and the song “Vincent” by Don McLean, for Professor Trotter’s Art Appreciation class at Rogers State University (RSU). The purpose of this paper is for the writer and reader both to learn more about Van Gogh and his work, and learn more about “Vincent”. Also, we should gain a better understanding and appreciation for Van Gogh’s art. After all, he is one of the greatest artists of all time.

Vincent Van Gogh only lived to be 37 years old and he was only an artist for the last 10 years of his life, but he did much with what little time he was alive. He was mostly known for portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes of various objects. One still-life he painted was of irises, titled “Irises” (1890), which is a painting by him that I find to be very beautiful. It is a close-up still-life of bright blue irises in a vase. He also painted another picture of a field of
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Throughout his life, Van Gogh sent paintings and letters to his brother frequently, and one quote by Van Gogh was this: “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” Van Gogh was an amazing artist, but he was said to have had many mental issues, and the statements are confirmed by the previous quote. One of the lyrics in Don McLean’s song is “Starry starry night,” and this lyric refers to Van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night”. It is a landscape painting that features a blue sky that was painted with swirly brush-strokes, and some yellow strokes as well, which represent the stars. Down at the bottom of the landscape is a sleepy town with a church steeple, so even if someone didn’t know much about Van Gogh, one could assume he was religious for including the steeple. There is also something on the left side of the