FAMOUS ARTWORK
Prompt - Famous Artwork : Choose a famous painting and write about it.
"Starry, starry night". The immediately recognisable opening words of Don McLean's second most famous song, Vincent. Although the lyrics go on to spring up images from a variety of the artist's work, and the impact they had upon the singer and the world, those three short words forever link the pop hit with one particular image.
Van Gogh painted other night skies dotted with stars, but it's the 1889 masterpiece, The Starry Night, which the song always evokes, probably because it was already one of the Dutchman's most renowned works before McLean's 1971 release. It's a simple enough scene. An impressionistic view from a window. Some dark trees in the foreground, a mid-ground of a neat village alongside a wood, laid before rolling hills and a dark cliff face, topped with a swirling night sky. The palette is dominated by blues and yellows. The drama of the image is all in the technique, and in the mind of its creator.
This wasn't the first night sky Van Gogh had painted, but it is the most dramatic. It's based on his view from his bedroom in the mental asylum he entered voluntarily after the notorious self mutilation of his ear during a psychotic incident. The asylum doctors felt that painting would be beneficial to his recovery, and he was prolific during his period residing there. His second floor bedroom looked out on trees and hills and the sky. The village he added in from other sketches he had made, to give the scene more evidence of humanity. It is just before dawn, the sky beginning to lighten slightly, but the moon and stars still prominent on a clear night a world away from the light pollution we live with today. It is a commonplace view given a radical treatment that makes it so memorable.
The trees and village are almost representational, prosaic in contrast to the other elements of the picture. Hills and wood roll smoothly over the eyes, enhancing the natural beauty of nature. But over fifty percent of the surface is given over to the night sky and the lights within it, and it is this which draws your attention. This is not the sky as we think we see it, but one that suggests the movement of light that creates it, the longing for theatricality from our world, Van Gogh's vibrant (and often disturbed) imagination and his unique way of observing and interpreting at his surroundings. It is the sky we would like to see if we were in a fairy tale, it a sky that is exciting, welcoming, and likely to have been associated with death in the painter's thoughts - he would die just over a year later from infection to a self inflicted bullet wound.
Creativity sometimes seemed akin to madness. Yesterday I wrote that writing fiction may need an injection of craziness to make it sparkle. That swirling night sky is undoubtedly genius, but came from the mind of a man who found the real world too difficult to handle.
"You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you"
McLean's sad words reflect the difficulties of an at times unstable visionary fitting into a society that doesn't know how to cope with his erratic behaviour and ability to see the everyday in a way nobody else could. The Starry Night is a bittersweet memorial to a tragically short life. I began with the opening words of the song, and I'll end with those that bring it to a tearful climax. Do you think we're listening yet?
"Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will"
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