Starry Night- Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night, Oil on canvas, 2'5x3'1/4. Starry Night was painted by Vincent Van Gogh in the year 1889. Van Gogh painted this piece of artwork when he was living at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole (an asylum in Saint-Remy, near Arles) where he had committed himself. Vincent Van Gogh was born March 30th 1853 and lived until July 29th 1890. Van Gogh suffered from anxiety and a period of mental illness. He lived until he was the age of 37. Many people believe that the gun shot wound that killed him was self inflicted. Van Gogh's most famous pieces of artwork are currently held in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. For example his works include Night Café, Starry Night, Sunflowers, and Almond Branches. In every painting that Van Gogh created you can see the use of color and expressionism that he provides especially when he uses Oil on canvas. In his letters that Van Gogh sent to his brother Theo he says that "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily so as to express myself forcibly" which proves that he painted things the way that he saw them and not the way that was expected.Van Gogh painted Starry Night a year before his death. In this painting rather than representing the sky he painted his feelings about the "electrifying vastness of the universe, filled with whirling and exploding stars and galaxies of stars, the earth and humanity huddling beneath it". This painting Van Gogh uses an expressionist method you can clearly see that in how he painted the night sky full of  stars that are swirled and how it makes it seem like the sky is in motion even though its not. The whole entire painting looks as if it is some how in motion. The use of color and contrast help convey what Van Gogh was trying to portray.