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http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=1214456

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So, what do you think? I'm not sure I see faces in the sky ... it does seem a bit unsettling to me though. That big protrusion on the left looks like the Spires of Mount Doom smile


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I don't see faces in the sky, but the sky itself seems to be in much more turmoil thatn the one in "Starry Night Over the Rhone"

In this "Starry Night" it feels like you are just waiting for a storm to happen.


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What the write-up on art.com said was that by this point he was in an institution and he did the entire thing from memory. So if he was locked up in a cell at this point and unable to see the night sky, I imagine there was a lot of turmoil in his mind as he painted this ...


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This is from Van Gogh's dark period and if I remember correctly he didn't like it because it didn't seem realistic enough to him.

Also, after he cut his left ear off he begand painting portraits of himself with the bandaged ear. However, in his portraits he paints the bandage on the right ear. Why do you suppose he did that?


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Maybe because he was looking in a mirror, and was literally translating the image he saw.

Most people would take into account that it was a "mirror image" and adust accordingly, but if he was in such a mindset - he may have been completely remeoved from himself - and saw that as painting the portrait of another person.

What's the possibility he suffered fomr DID? Did they even understand that back then?


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Wikipedia says:

"There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's mental illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label his illness, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested.[74]

Diagnoses which have been put forward include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia, and a fondness for alcohol, and absinthe in particular."

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Just a small correction here. Van Gogh did not cut off his ear, he cut off a small piece of his earlobe. Which, I grant you, is not a normal thing to do, but not quite as weird as cutting the entire ear off. I was told this by an art history professor about 35 years ago and have been trying to correct the mis-perception, whenever I hear it, ever since. smile

I love Van Gogh's work. I love the brilliant colors, the movement, and knowing that such a tortured soul produced such incredible beauty. Looking at his paintings, to me, can bring me to tears just being in the presence of it, especially in person at a museum.

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I have read also - I'm sorry I can't remember where - that that particular painting is a representation of what Van Gogh saw when he had migraine.

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Well we know he was in a mental institution when he painted this, so he could have been suffering from all sorts of things smile


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I do really like the colors in a swirly-stained-glass sort of way. If I just look at parts of it I really like it a lot. But all together, it has a dark / ominous look to it for me smile


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OKay, I love this image and don't see anything disturbing. In fact, I find this one of the most spiritual pieces of art I know.

Too tired, late at night to explain; i will do that later.

Edvard Munch, a contemporary of the time, is far more disturbing. Most people know "the Scream" (also called "the Cry"...). And take a look at his other works. He saw the worst in people, quite often. Van Gogh saw hope in the midst of his turmoil.

Dali is disturbing.

Goya is INCREDIBLY disturbing.

Van Gogh was just, well, like me. I see a lot of similarities between him and myself in his life - I just am lucky enough to have Prozac available. smile

Anyway, Starry Night is more about the vision of Gene Roddenberry and Carl Sagan than anything else. Farscape. Firefly. But I am really too tired to get deeper than that right now. smile

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Originally Posted By: Gillian - Classical Music
I have read also - I'm sorry I can't remember where - that that particular painting is a representation of what Van Gogh saw when he had migraine.


You know, when I have a migraine - lights often DO take on "halo" effect (for as long as i can stand to look at them, that is.

SO that explanation would actually make quite a bit of sense.

And migraines quite often go hand in hand with depression and bi-polar (I was told this by my neurologist), so it is possible he was suffering fomr both.


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Jilly you brought up some other great paintings to discuss! Thanks! smile


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I love it - I seem to always respond to the art and literature of the underdog!

Interestingly, we have just returned from viewing the Van Goghs at London's National Gallery. The kids,from being Van Gogh fans, suddenly went to not liking him! Shame! I wonder why? Anyway, the painting suddenly seemed smaller and had less impact. (Sunflowers)

(our photo journal of the visit below if interested further)

Going off to investigate further on the education forums.....





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Ok - maybe I am as disturbed as Van Gogh - but, if you look at the large swirl just to the right of the "Spires of Mount Doom", do you not see a face in that circle? Also in the very small swirl just above it there is a face and in the small swirl over by the moon. In the screen saver I had of it a few years ago, I saw many more faces. There was even one of Van Gogh himself in the long swirl to the right of the Spires. Are there different versions of the painting that VanGogh might have put in faces? Am I nuts?!!! I do see faces there.

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No, you're right - I see them too - but then I see them in tree trunks, rocks and ripples too! For me, in this particular painting - it is the power and energy of the sweeping brush strokes that engages me - yet they are controlled too!

The ones we viewed in London seemed oddly melancholy despite their colours - almost surreal (the sunflowers and the chair.) I think we,and the kids, have become used to seeing them much larger - as posters = and so were disappointed.





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That's so interesting that you got more fond of the altered-size reproductions than the reality of it! I imagine you could put a reproduction in a frame you adore too - and then really dislike the way the museum chose to frame it.

I'm still not sure I see faces, maybe I need a larger image!


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Yes, I wish you could see those paintings. Imagine you have a bright yellow sunshiny large image in your mind.

Then you walk into a busy room with dull lighting, and poked away in one corner is a grey blueish small insignificant-looking painting of sunflowers in a dowdy frame! That is the great Van Gogh!

Don't get me wrong, I love the painting - but I'm sure most kids are used to large, light wall posters!

How much photo-enhancing, maximising do you think they do? Could no longer get the kids interested in that painting!





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Ahhhh! I almost bought this today.

At Target they had a reprodution of his three works:
"Starry Night over the Rhone"
"Cafe Terrace at Night" &
"Starry, Starry Night"

I'm still kind of kicking myslef for not getting it.

My (16 yr old) son goes - "Why would you want that?"

This is the one that is supposed to be so good in art too! crazy


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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.


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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Originally Posted By: Jilly
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.


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!


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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?


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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. blush For some reason, I just thought "northeast".

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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.


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Whew! Now I do not feel so looney. I almost always feel myself within a painting if I really like and the artist is good, like Van Gogh.

In the Wheat Field With Crows I also sense a rushing wind coming up and maybe that startled the crows. Hmmm! bet Vincent and I would have got along great... laugh

Last edited by Phyllis, NA and Folk; 01/20/09 11:02 PM.

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Starry Night has always been one of my favorite pieces of art! One of the best examples of early expressionism, in my opinion.

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It is dark and brooding. Much like it belongs to a scene from 'Wuthering Heights'. It is so unlike the starry night I'm used to with sparkling diamonds sailing above.

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I love van Gogh's work. And I have to stick my astronomy nose into this discussions. Van Gogh was a very keen amateur astronomer with a good knowledge of the night sky and his starry representations are reckoned to be accurate.

What is extra interesting about this one is that some astronomers have sseen it as a representation of the sky from San Remy BUT... Look at that amazing spiral in the middle of it and look at this:



That's something only visible through a good telescope. The sketch above is by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse.

Van Gogh seems to be capturing the seen and the unseen reality.


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I had forgotten all about this thread and just came across it again. Here is an image I edited and circled what I see as "faces" within the painting:



I forgot to circle one more, the one closest to the moon.

Can anyone else make out the faces? If so, do you think van Gogh purposely put them in there because this painting is maybe a nightmare he had with images of himself and others swirling around in his mind?

Regardless of why he painted it or what it meant to him, I see it as beautiful and very spiritual.

Last edited by Phyllis-Folk/Myth; 04/20/11 05:35 PM.

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Erm, no, don't see any faces. But I do see M51.

Maybe Folk/Myth people see faces and Astronomers see spiral galaxies! lol

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