Starry Night over the Rhone – Vincent Van Gogh

1200 Words3 Pages

Art has been around for hundreds of thousands of years. Throughout history, there have been many artists who have made their mark on the art world, but one in particular is popular and well known among art enthusiasts. Vincent Van Gogh is one of the best known artists of all time and his paintings have become extremely well known and popular among art collectors. Throughout his lifetime, he painted hundreds of various paintings, but there is one painting that he is better known for, and that is Starry Night over the Rhone. Starry Night over the Rhone is an oil painting done on canvas. Vincent Van Gogh painted it in September of 1888 in Arles, France. Currently, the painting is housed in the Musee d’Orsay, which is located in Paris, France, Europe. Vincent Van Gogh’s piece of art is a well-crafted masterpiece that captivates his style very well. Accordingly, his use of dense brush strokes, visible hues that reflect off the water and overall perspective that conveys an organic, yet untamed take on nature.
Vincent Van Gogh’s style is defined by the profuse brush strokes that you see in all his paintings. These brush strokes highlight the primary subject of a majority of his paintings which is nature. The texture in Starry Night over the Rhone is what gives the artwork an organic feeling. Vincent Van Gogh did an excellent job with handling the medium. Since the medium is canvas, it’s very heavily woven and compact. He does a superb job with utilizing thick brush strokes that allow the artwork to really stand out. The surface is not smooth, but rather textured like a light-sand paper. The texture is already rough due to the canvas medium; however these heavy brush strokes define the texture even more, making the piece of art really co...

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...ter. His focus on nature and organicism is illustrated through the de-emphasis of the couple and the boats. The down-to-earth tone that the combination of the elements creates is magnificent because it just shows the effort and time Vincent Van Gogh put into to creating this highly sought after work of art. Starry Night over the Rhone will forever be one of the most distinguished, most sought-after, most popular artworks in the world, and it’s all thanks to the one and only Vincent Van Gogh.

Works Cited

"Starry Night over the Rhone." Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
"Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night." Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. .

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