The Starry Night: Inspiration of Asylum

Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's Asylum Days

Vincent van Gogh's 
Self Portrait (1889)

The Starry Night is the Dutch post-impressionist (related to Avant-Garde) artist Vincent van Gogh's oil painting. It is painted in June 1889, with the inclusion of an attractive village, it depicts the scene from the east facing window of his asylum chamber at Saint Rémy de Provence. The asylum Vincent van Gogh willingly admitted himself to the Saint Paul de Mausole lunatic asylum on 8 May 1889 due to the collapse of 23 December 1888 which culminated in the self-mutilation of his left ear. Located in such a former convent, Saint Paul de Mausole catered to the affluent and far less than half empty as Van Gogh decided, enabling him to rent not just a room on the second floor but also a space on the bottom floor can be used as a drawing workshop. The prolific output of drawings he had started in Arles persisted over the year Van Gogh remained at the asylum. Van Gogh portrayed the scene at various times of the day and in respect with different weather conditions, including sunrise, moonrise, sunshine-filled days, windy days, and one rainy day. Although Vincent van Gogh was not permitted to work in his room by the medical staff, he was prepared to make drawings on canvas in ink or coal, finally, new designs would be based on earlier prototypes.

Depictions in the Starry Night

Wheat Field with Cypresses 
(1889) by Vincent van Gogh

The visual feature that unites all such drawings is the diagonal row from the right that portrays the Alpilles mountains and its softly rolling hills. Crepe myrtles are noticeable above the far wall surrounding the wheat field in 15 of the 21 iterations. In six of these paintings, Van Gogh telescoped the view, quite significantly in Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night, taking the plants nearer to the ground. The use of white and yellow by Van Gogh produces a spiralling impact, bringing attention to the stars.

Venus depiction in Starry Night

Vertical lines like the cypress tree and the church tower break the design gently without retracting from the dominant night sky. Van Gogh utilizes colour to bring about deep feelings. At the beginning of June, Vincent wrote a letter to his brother Theo and said “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but themorning star, which looked very big.” Studies found that at dawn in Provence in the spring of 1889, Venus was strongly noticeable, and at that time it was almost as intense as possible. So in fact, Venus is the brightest star in the scene among all star representations.