A Night Sky I will Never Forget!

The Starry Night. Saint Rémy, June 1889

Vincent van Gogh, 1853-1890

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Starry Night was what Van Gogh saw when he looked at the night sky. His night sky looks so full of the energy of nature that it terrifies me. Below the exploding stars, the village is a place of quiet order. Connecting earth and sky is the flamelike cypress, a tree traditionally associated with graveyards and mourning. Its undoubtably a great painting. But unlike the very happy Sunflower series, this is a very restless and charged painting. The Starry Night was completed near the mental asylum (where he had admitted himself to find a cure for his mental instability) of Saint-Remy, 13 months before Van Gogh's death at the age of 37.

Great Painting, and a night sky I will never forget.