DINANI XR

Van Gogh painted a series of pictures depicting sunflowers, having first been inspired by the yellow flowers H Paris where he saw them growing in the gardens of Montmartre. They were a motif that he returned to often, and in the summer of 1888 he embarked on a large number of paintings of sunflowers to decorate his studio and house in preparation for Gauguin's arrival. Sunflowers were symbolic of life and hope to the artist, and could also be associated with his concept of the sun - round, glowing, yellow, and hopeful. In a letter to Emile Bernard written around 21 August 1888 Vincent wrote:

I'm thinking of decorating my studio with half a dozen paintings of Sunflowers. A decoration in which harsh or broken yellows will burst against various blue backgrounds, from the palest Veronese to royal blue, framed with thin laths painted in orange lead. Sorts of effects of stained-glass windows of a Gothic church."

It is extraordinary that the artist, who was so plagued with mental illness and depression, was able to have interludes marked by such a positive outlook, which was reflected in his works. In Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, he has reduced the elements of the composition so that the image is one of great simplicity, while also reducing the colours to primarily his favourite yellow, This reflects him synthesizing realism with pattern and ornament, so they are both highly decorative and almost symbolist in feel, but also retain a fundamentally real quality.

(July 21, 2023: Vincentvangogh.org/vase-with-twelve-sunflowers)

Widely hailed as Van Gogh's magnum opus, this Vincent van Gogh night stars painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day.

Starry Night depicts a dreamy interpretation of the artist's asylum room's sweeping view of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Though Van Gogh revisited this scene in his work on several occasions, "Starry Night" is the only nocturnal study of the view. Thus, in addition to descriptions evident in the myriad of letters he wrote to his brother, Theo, it offers a rare nighttime glimpse into what the artist saw while in isolation. "Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure," he wrote in May of 1889, "above which in the morning I see the sunrise in its glory."

An end-of-the-world cataclysm invades Van Gogh's Starry Night, one of apocalypse filled with melting aerolites and comets adrift. One has the impression that the artist has expelled his inner conflict onto a canvas. Everything here is brewed in a huge cosmic fusion. The sole exception is the village in the foreground with its architectural elements. (Not Depicted Here)

(July 21, 2023: Vincentvangogh.org/starry-night)

This painting of a colorful outdoor view is a picturesque work, the vision of a relaxed spectator who enjoys the charm of his surrounding without any moral concern. It recalls Van Gogh's mood when he wrote that "the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." The color is more profuse and the eye wanders along the steeped or dove-tailed edges of neighboring areas - irregular shapes fitted to each other like a jigsaw puzzle design. To divide this space for long into a large object and background themes is difficult for the eyes; the distant and nearer parts are alike distinct. The yellow of the cafe plays against the blue-black of the remote street and the violet-blue of the foreground door, and, by a paradox of composition that helps to unify the work, at the strongest point of contrast the awning's blunt corner nearest to us touches the remote blue sky. Foreshortened lines that thrust into depth, like the lintel of the door, are strictly parallel to lines like the slope of the yellow awning and the roof of the house above, which lie in planes perpendicular to the first. For this roving, unengaged vision the upward dimension is no less important and expressive than the depth.

The silhouette of the starry sky is key to the patterning of the whole; the poetic idea of the work - the double illumination and contrast of the cafe and the night sky - is developed through this jagged form. In the silhouette of the orange cafe floor and the adjoining window and doors, we discover the inverted shape of the blue sky; the scattered disks of the stars are matched in the elliptical tabletops below.

The most eye-catching aspect of the painting is the sharp contrast between the warm yellow, green and orange colours under the marquise and the deep blue of the starry sky, which is reinforced by the dark blue of the houses in the background. Van Gogh was pleased with the effect: "I believe that an abundance of gaslight, which, after all, is yellow and orange, intensifies blue."

(July 21, 2023: Vincentvangogh.org/cafe-at-night)