BellaOnline Forums Education Art Appreciation Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh

I would love to have Van Gogh paintings (reproductions) in my home. When I get my own place again I will start buying some. Starry Night is my favorite, I think. I like his Sunflowers, too.

I agree with Jilly that this piece doesn't seem as disturbing or frightful. I agree that Dali and Goya has more pictures that are unsettling. I love Dali's images but there are some that makes you a bit uneasy. I love van Gogh and I have a print of this hanging in my place.

He actually didn't cut off his ear b/c he loved a girl. He got a little crazy when a prostitute on his lap was laughingly playing with and making fun of his big ears. And his "buddy" Gauguin didn't help matters, as the ladies were always way more attracted to the suave Gauguin then Van Gogh himself.

So he went home and cut most of his ear off, wrapped it up and gave it to the girl. That is how the story is recorded. Yegads. It wasn't about the girl so much, as just another straw on the camel's back of his misery, so to speak.

He was severely clinically depressed and lacked many social skills. His swirls were a way to express the huge passion for life that he had inside but could not truly express. His tale is really very sad, but I feel like I identify with him somehow. I wish i could have been his friend.

Isn't it sad, Jilly, that the people back in his day could not get the help they needed for their depressions. Depression was just not understood too well back then. Van Gogh's art was definitley a form of release for him. I love his paintings because I can feel his emotions in them - I can feel the sadness and sense of loss and confusion.

Yeah. Depression is still not really accepted as a legitimate illness. People always think I should just be able to 'get over it'...i have to maintain a constant awareness of how I react to things and try to head them off at the pass beforehand.

So in that sense I am more fortunate than poor Vincent. He took his life shortly after painting Crows in a Field. That is a very telling painting if you look closely at it. The road suddenly ends in the middle of a field of sunflowers, and then crows fly up from that spot. It's cruder than his other works. You can feel him gripping the brush very hard, trying to tell his last story...as all hope that his life would ever get better was finally waning. I get shivers.

For people who haven't seen that painting, it is here -

Wheat Field with Crows

It is quite strong! It's interesting to me that it's almost as if there are TWO moons - one to the left, but one you are "walking into".

It's interesting that apparently there's a debate over whether this is his last painting or not!

I used to get the same reaction from people when I went thru years of depression. "Just get over it! Think of something happy." They just did not understand.

I really like the crows in the field painting. It kind of makes me think of just letting all worries fly away!

Phyllis - one of the discussions about the field painting is which way the crows are flying. What sense do you get? Are they flying away from you? Or are they flying at you?

They seem to be flying away to the northeast, Lisa - away from me. Now why would I think of the direction in terms of where I am facing?, I wonder. For some reason, I just thought "northeast".

I think a good artist (which of course Van Gogh is) should be able to make you feel as if you are sitting in the picture.

So the fact that you think of the direction in terms of where you are seems perfectly natural to me.