One of Vincent van Gogh's last masterpieces before his death is “Starry Night”, a painting full of details depicting the thoughts,emotions and preferences of the tormented Dutch painter.
While The Wheatfield with Crows is certainly one of Van Gogh's last pieces, the Van Gogh Museum has identified Tree Roots as the painting he was working on just before he died. In 2020, the exact location where Van Gogh painted his masterpiece was revealed, following the discovery of a historical postcard.
The exact spot where Vincent van Gogh was painting just a few hours before he shot himself has been found. The picture, Tree Roots, was identified as his last work a few years ago.
Detail of: Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889. Van Gogh's rolling night sky full of bright stars is probably one of the world's most famous artworks. The Starry Night's home is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Widely regarded as Van Gogh's magnum opus, The Starry Night is one of the most recognizable paintings in Western art.
The Starry Night painting has been highly esteemed for decades and its value has reached $100 million, following its $50 million sale in 1990. The painting has fetched high prices in the past, with numerous auction house sales reaching millions of dollars.
The four famous starry sky paintings, Starry Night over the Rhone, Starry Night, Café Terrace and Portrait of Eugene Boch, form a series of stark and visually powerful works that celebrate the night sky as much as Van Gogh also celebrated the blazing Provencal sun.
What is the message of The Starry Night? Many people believe The Starry Night is an expression of Van Gogh's mental health. The vibrant blues are a common color during his bouts of mental illness. His fascination with stars, death, and transcendence are evident in the starry sky he painted.
Starry Night series
Van Gogh made no less than 21 variations of the Starry Night under different light conditions and weather, just because he wasn't completely satisfied with the final output. In fact, in a letter to painter Émile Bernard, Van Gogh called this painting a failure.
It is good to love many things, for therein lies strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done with love is well done. ”
This one's easy: no, Vincent didn't have any children.
A total of 6 paintings have been destroyed over the years. Not to mention, Van Gogh himself destroyed many of his initial paintings because he just wasn't happy with them. In 1945, his painting Vase with Five Sunflowers was destroyed during an air raid on Japan.
UPDATE: On 9 November 2022 Orchard with Cypresses sold at Christie's, New York for $117m. This was a record price for a Van Gogh painting. Martin Bailey is the author of Van Gogh's Finale: Auvers and the Artist's Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln, 2021, available in the UK and US ).
Despite only working for 10 years – from the age of 27 up until his early demise at 37 – van Gogh was incredibly prolific. He produced more than 900 paintings and many more drawings and sketches, which works out at nearly a new artworks every 36 hours.
But one meaning that Starry Night is supposed to hold was biblical, where the eleven stars were seen as a reference to Joseph. With a possible reference to Genesis 37:9, Van Gogh hoped that he would gain acceptance from his peers as an artist—similar to how Joseph did after a hard life.
The painting features short, painterly brushstrokes, an artificial color palette and a focus on luminescence. It's this treatment that helps explain why it became so famous and why it's considered a great piece of art.
There are various interpretations of Starry Night and one is that this canvas depicts hope. It seems that van Gogh was showing that even with a dark night such as this it is still possible to see light in the windows of the houses. Furthermore, with shining stars filling the sky, there is always light to guide you.
You can own a museum-quality handmade art reproduction of "The Starry Night" by artist Vincent van Gogh in 1889. The oil painting will be reproduced on artist-level linen canvas by an expert painter. You can select from multiple sizing options and top quality frames.
Yes, our reproductions of Starry Night are meticulously hand-painted by our skilled artists on canvas. Starting with a sketch, the artist adds all the details and colors, layer by layer, following the original brushstroke style.
Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890): $152 Million
Sold in 1990 for a whopping $83 million, Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet, painted in 1890, is the most expensive Van Gogh painting. This Van Gogh painting's price generally span the millions; hence the current estimated value sits at $152 million.
The Starry Night is not in the Vincent Van Gogh Museum because they do not own the painting. The painting was purchased from a private Dutch collection around 1941 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) in New York City. The Starry Night is still on exhibit at the MoMA as of 2021.
One or two cypress trees, often described as flame-like, tower over the foreground to the left, their dark branches curling and swaying to the movement of the sky that they partly obscure. Amid all this animation, a structured village sits in the distance on the lower right of the canvas.