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Mental Illness In Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night

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Depression. An endless struggle towards the surface of an ocean of self-doubt and worries. Mental illness is not always clear to see and can be expressed in many different ways. Vincent Van Gogh expressed this through his many paintings. It may not be apparent when first looking at Van Gogh’s paintings, but after a while, a pattern can be seen or inferred. It is widely known that Van Gogh was not the most stable person mentally, and many thought that it was depicted in his many paintings. Vincent Van Gogh through his painting The Starry Night has used color, layout, and symbolism to convey his mental illness.
Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night is without a doubt an expressive and captivating artwork. The painting depicts a compact village that is completely illuminated, save for the prominent church in the middle of the town. Pale greens and a smattering of light blue half circles encase the village in a calm forest of sorts until they run into the thin and …show more content…

As time moved closer to Van Gogh’s eventual suicide, cooler colors were used instead of the bright yellows he had used previously. The Starry Night being painted only a year before Van Gogh’s death, mostly contains dark, cool colors, such as blue and black, and very little bright and hopeful colors such as yellow. The article, Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night (2015) at one point states “it is possible to draw a parallel between the artist’s emotional state and a delicate egg: he is being poked and menaced by the cypress — dark, enclosing force representing a threat (or several threats)” (para. 3). Van Gogh chooses to use black to depict the jagged cypress tree that it seemingly stabbing at the sky. Along the line of the aforementioned article, the chosen blues and white of the night sky represent the vulnerability of Van Gogh’s feelings and mental state depicting the almost constant depression that plagued

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In the painting, The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van Gogh he also gives a perspective of a town and the swirly designs in the night sky (Holub and Bucks 29). Van Gogh wants to also show the observer the town on a night filled with starts in an abstract way that may seem happy and positive. The book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and the painting The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh compare because of how the author/artist convey the perspective on how one should look at the

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The sun beams from the sky are lighting up a small area of the painting and the rest is dark and gloomy. The gloominess of the painting represents dark and depressing times while the brightness of the sky creeps through thick dark clouds. This represents heaven because heaven is so large and bright and amazing that even though life is hard and seems like the world is ending, there is always something greater out there. Personally, I love this painting. I really like how Dore paints that trees and valley dark because it really highlights the beams from the sun.

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Jane who is mentally unstable or plagued with depression is seeing what her mind is showing her through this wallpaper. Depression is a profound illness that takes over your entire body. Many people who are diagnosed with depression often express symptoms of feeling alone. “John says the very worst thing I can do

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Russ Kramer’s painting Far From Home of a small sailboat all alone on the open water can be seen in many different ways, some better than others. In Dorothy Allison ’s essay she talks about people hiding their “secret selves” when they look at paintings and how each person has a certain “version of reality” that makes their “secret selves” (595). I agree with Dorothy Allison that everyone sees things differently based on their own personal “version of reality” that is determined by their past experiences. When you look at this painting your eye is first drawn to the whitecaps throughout the foreground.

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He was a post-impressionist artist responsible for “his own more bold and conventional style” (“Van Gogh Gallery”). He is, of course, most famous for his painting, “Starry Night.” Van Gogh was known to be “highly emotional, lacking self-confidence, and struggling with his identity and direction” (“Van Gogh Gallery”). When he finally decided to pursue art, he had already endured many hardships. He had gone through two unhappy relationships and worked unsuccessfully as a bookstore clerk, an art salesman, and a preacher, where he was “dismissed for overzealousness” (“Van Gogh Gallery”).

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In “Let there be Dark”, Paul Bogard synthesizes a compelling dissertation that natural darkness should be preserved. Board deftly delivers a cogent argument to sway his/her readers by using personal anecdote, pathos and researches. Throughout the article, Bogard uses personal anecdote in order to persuade readers to give credence to his claim that natural darkness should be preserved. Bogard remains nostalgic about his memory of childhood: “At my family’s cabin on a Minnesota lake, I knew woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes. I knew night skies in which meteors left smoky trails across sugary spreads of stars…

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In addition, Dilworth applies various meaningful colors to this artwork. Thus, for instance, dark blue symbolizes intangible mystery and deepness of candour. Black represents sadness and mortification. Moreover, dark blue covered by black implies the deepness of sorrow.

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During this time it is known that he hit a creative streak painting some of his most famous paintings - such as Starry Night - and was given an extra room in the asylum to use as a studio. He unfortunately suffered many relapses of his worsening mental illnesses, eating his own paint at one point, and was restricted to drawing. It is believed that during this time he completed over 150 paintings. In January of 1890, during his year in the asylum, Vincent Van Gogh received a birth notice from his brother and sister-in-law - Vincent Willem Van Gogh was named after him - Van Gogh painted Almond Blossom as their

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Vincent van Gogh is known for many things; his passion for art, his troubled life, and his struggle with mental health. However, as time has progressed, more and more information has surfaced about Van Gogh’s life and ambitions. For example, some of the important information found tells us of the artists spiritual life, most importantly, his stance on religion and how it had affected him. In fact, religion played such a role in his life, it affected everything from his career, to his art, to his relationships and beliefs. To demonstrate, with this new information, it is easy to assume that if the artist had taken only a few different steps, we would not even know about his famous paintings.

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In the 18th century, another one of the greatest artist of all time, Vincent Van Gogh illustrated a very personal painting. The Starry Night is now one of the most widely known paintings in the world, but the story and meaning is not. Both artist used dark and grim themes when it came to their creations, and that is what draws the public to them. In today 's society we are able to relate to the deeper and more mentally touching symbols of these pieces of art. Andrew Wyeth’s painting, Christina’s World shows a young woman in a empty field looking up at a grim farmhouse on a rustic summer day.

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Searching for a painting that really spoke to me was hard, I was searching for quite a while, until I found Bedroom in Arles. There are many things in this painting that would catch a viewer 's eye; the reason the painting caught my eye was because it was much more vibrant and colorful that all the other artworks I saw, that is why it attracted me. “Bedroom in Arles created” in 1888 by the word renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh was painted to represent himself, who he was as a person, and the life he lived. That is what Van Gogh is trying to convey to the viewer in this painting, he did this with the use of vibrant colors, the thick brushstrokes used, the many different and odd parts of this painting, and the texture of the items in the painting. Van Gogh’s use of color, and his bold color choices is what really attracted me to this painting, it stood out like a sore thumb from all the other paintings.

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Of course, eventually new generations of audience have different interpretations of the meaning of these paintings, however these paintings have both keep there originally meaning. Starry Night relates mostly to the person of Van Gogh himself. His main purpose of this painting was to show his brother his lifestyle and the view he had while in jail. This painting does relate to nature though with the entire painting being an actually view that Van Gogh saw. He has a small town, cypress tree, and the stars to show all the nature around him during his stay in the jail.

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Art is expressed in many ways, such as writing, music, sculptures, paintings, and more. Vincent van Gogh 's "Starry Night" is known around the world. Van Gogh 's oil painting was completed when he was institutionalized in a mental asylum. He painted the dark sky right before the rise of the early morning sun. Gogh used shades of

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Vincent Van Gogh, a famous Dutch painter, lived with bipolar disorder for the majority of his life and despite his mental illness, he still produced many famous paintings, one of his most known is The Starry Night. Although many people have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, they can still live the life they want to live with proper treatments. Bipolar disorder is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as a “brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out daily tasks” (“Bipolar Disorder in Adults”). In Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Cathy Earnshaw is described as a spirited and strong willed young child, often getting in trouble. During her adolescent years she kept the same sense of sauciness, but her moods are more varied now: she displays “...seasons of gloom…” as Nelly describes them (Bronte 100).

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In art, color is very personal and subjective, and gives different meaning to different people. However, in this Van Gogh piece, it is clear what the colors are used for. The blue found in the man’s overalls suggests uneasiness, melancholy and distress. Blue is unanimously associated with sorrow, and it is clear that in this piece, the subject is suffering immensely. The color is used to compliment the feelings the audience perceives from this artwork.

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