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Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, in southern France, where he had admitted himself a month earlier. It shows the view from his bedroom window just before sunrise, but the village and its church were added from his imagination.

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, June 1889

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The story behind the card

Van Gogh entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum on 8 May 1889, a few months after a breakdown in Arles during which he injured his own ear. From his east-facing window he watched the sun rise over a walled wheat field, a view he painted at least 21 times. The Starry Night itself was made by day in a ground-floor studio, from sketches and memory. Some details are accurate: Venus, the bright “morning star” near the horizon, really was visible at that time. Others are not: the Moon was then more than half full, not a crescent, and the church spire looks more Dutch than Provençal. Van Gogh himself called the painting a failure in a letter to the painter Émile Bernard. It has hung in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941.

Türkçe oku
Vincent van Gogh, Yıldızlı Gece'yi Haziran 1889'da Güney Fransa'da, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence'taki akıl hastanesinde yaptı; hastaneye bir ay önce kendi isteğiyle yatmıştı. Resim, gün doğmadan hemen önce odasının penceresinden görünen manzarayı gösterir; ama köy ve kilisesi ressamın hayal gücünden çıkmadır.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Haziran 1889

Van Gogh, Arles'da geçirdiği bir sinir krizi sırasında kendi kulağını yaralamıştı. Birkaç ay sonra, 8 Mayıs 1889'da Saint-Paul-de-Mausole akıl hastanesine yattı. Doğuya bakan penceresinden, taş duvarla çevrili bir buğday tarlasının üzerinde doğan güneşi izliyordu; bu manzarayı en az 21 kez resmetti. Yıldızlı Gece'yi ise pencere başında değil, gündüzleri alt kattaki atölyesinde, eskizlerine ve hafızasına dayanarak yaptı. Bazı ayrıntılar gerçeğe uygundur: Ufkun yakınındaki parlak “sabah yıldızı” Venüs o günlerde gerçekten görünüyordu. Bazıları ise değildir: Ay o sırada hilal değil, yarısından fazlası aydınlık bir şişkin aydı; kilisenin sivri kulesi de Provence'tan çok Hollanda'yı andırır. Van Gogh, ressam Émile Bernard'a yazdığı bir mektupta bu tabloya başarısız bir deneme dedi. Eser 1941'den beri New York'taki Modern Sanat Müzesi'nde (MoMA) duruyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The Starry Night
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