Starry Night essays

Starry Night essays I chose The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh because it is a very well known piece of art. People throughout time have always looked at this piece of art as one of the most fascinating pieces of all time. I became interested in this piece and began reading articles about it. According to what I read, Starry Night was painted while Van Gogh was in an asylum. His behavior was very erratic at the time, which can be the reason for some of the things shown in this piece of art. A poem by Anne Sexton called, The Starry Night, was created through a letter Van Gogh had written his brother. Through Anne Sextons poem and the painting by Van Gogh, I am able to get a feel on what exactly Van Gogh was portraying in this piece of art. The first thing I noticed when I looked at this piece is the sky. The starry sky occupies more than half of the painting. In the sky, there is an orange and yellow moon along with eleven bright white and yellow stars. The sun and all of the stars are surrounded by bright rings of light. According to Anne Sexton, The night boils with eleven stars (line 4). Left of the center, it looks as though there is something dark and evil towering over the village. The large figure, which appears to be a tree, looks like black flames. It stands alone on the top of a hill looking at the sky and the village. According to Anne Sexton, The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars. (10). The tree, covering part of the mountains, sits still and is untouched by the wind or the light reflected by the bright sky. It remains alone, separated from the remainder of the painting as if it was not even a part of it. To the right of the painting, there is a small town with houses, a church, and some large blue hills. The church sits in the middle, almost as the focal point of the painting. Even though it is night, there are no lights shining down on the city. Due to the absence of light ...