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Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night
Throughout his career, Vincent van Gogh attempted the paradoxical task of representing night through color and tonality. His procedure followed the trend set by the Impressionists of "translating" visual light effects with various color combinations, yet this goal was grafted onto his desire to interweave the visual and the metaphorical in order to produce fresh and original works of art. These different artistic concerns found themselves powerfully bound together in Van Gogh's nocturnal and twilight paintings and drawings. This illuminating volume, published to accompany the first exhibition to focus on this aspect of Van Gogh's career, presents new insight on Van Gogh's depictions of night landscapes, interior scenes and the effects of both artificial and natural light on their surroundings. Representing all periods of the artist's career, this volume features more than 100 images of superlative quality, including large reproductions of works by Van Gogh, details of iconic paintings and images of works by other artists that were important to the development of Van Gogh's oeuvre. Essays by the exhibition organizers provide historical and personal contexts for better understanding the artist's motives and offer in-depth studies of the technical and stylistic aspects of Van Gogh's work.
Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in The Netherlands. His career as an artist lasted only 10 years, but he produced almost 2,000 paintings and works on paper during this brief period, many of them described or sketched in his extensive correspondence with his brother Theo. Van Gogh is most celebrated for his bold use of color and expressive painting technique. He spent his last years in the south of France, where he painted many of his most famous works. He died in Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris, on July 29, 1890.
Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in The Netherlands. His career as an artist lasted only 10 years, but he produced almost 2,000 paintings and works on paper during this brief period, many of them described or sketched in his extensive correspondence with his brother Theo. Van Gogh is most celebrated for his bold use of color and expressive painting technique. He spent his last years in the south of France, where he painted many of his most famous works. He died in Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris, on July 29, 1890.
- GenresArtNonfiction
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
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About the author
Vincent van Gogh
537 books2,341 followersVincent Willem van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.
In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.
In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 22, 2019
In 2008 I saw “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night” at the Museum of Modern Art. The show was created by Joachim Pissarro of MOMA and Sjaar van Heugten of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The small collection of paintings, drawings, and letters was divided into five themes: Early Landscapes, Peasant Life, Sowers and Wheatfields, Poetry of the Night: The Town, and Poetry of the Night: The Country.
Van Gogh’s early landscapes follow the traditions of Dutch landscape painting. However, Van Gogh introduced his innovative brushwork and the bright colors of the Impressionists to his twilight scenes. I was especially drawn to “Sunset at Montmartre” with its soft blues and greens and the fluid line of the wooden snow fence separating earth from sky. It is a delightful scene of nature, peaceful and simple, high above Montmartre. The intrusion of humanity is merely hinted at by the snow fence and the tendrils of smoke rising in the distance.
The section on peasant life celebrates the humble lives of the peasantry. Van Gogh sympathized with the hard-working poor and he wanted to depict the dignity of their struggle for existence. In “The Potato Eaters,” his first major painting, he presents a group of manual laborers eating their sparse meal of potatoes and coffee. It is an important painting, but I preferred “The Cottage,” which is just as dark and gloomy, but possesses a melancholic beauty that I don't find in the human figures.
The third section is marked by an explosion of color. Van Gogh’s paintings of sowers and wheatfields are less representational than his Dutch landscapes. “The Sower” is an extraordinary example of Van Gogh’s symbolic use of color. The sky is green with wispy pink clouds and an enormous yellow sun. The field where the sower labors is violet. The fantastical colors express a subjective reality that is at once familiar and surreal. Instead of merely copying reality, Van Gogh has revealed its essence. He allows the viewer to appreciate the scene from his perspective, for seeing through the eyes of another requires some disorientation; one must be shocked out of one’s ordinary mode of perception.
Van Gogh’s paintings of the town make up the next section. Here he depicts dance halls and cafes. “The Night Cafe,” for instance, is a sordid place colored with harsh red and green where lonely drunks sit slumped over their drinks under the glare of artificial light. The perspective of the painting is distorted so that the floor almost seems to slope violently to the left, creating a nightmarish sense of unreality.
There is a mood of despair and alienation in many of Van Gogh’s human environments compared to his splendid landscapes. I prefer scenes where people are just a part of the landscape rather than scenes where they predominate. “The Starry Night Over the Rhone” is a perfect example. The strolling couple take up only a small fraction of the canvas. The rest is given over to a magnificent blue-green sky full of twinkling stars, all of which is reflected in the river below.
But it is not only the natural settings that I find beautiful, for “Cafe Terrace at Night,” one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, is a human environment that is equally pleasing. The human figures are tiny and indistinct, so that it is the charm of the sidewalk cafe with its little bistro tables and chairs that takes center stage. I was disappointed that “Cafe Terrace at Night,” was not part of the exhibit, though there was at least Van Gogh’s sketch of the painting.
The culmination of the exhibit, Van Gogh’s country paintings, included his masterpiece “The Starry Night.” Now I’ve seen “The Starry Night” many times before, since this painting is one of MOMA’s own, but seeing it in the context of Van Gogh’s night paintings, and especially after seeing “A Starry Night Over the Rhone” is another thing altogether. The cosmic phenomena from the earlier painting are magnified in size and intensity. It is a purely imaginary scene, alive with spiritual significance: Blazing yellow stars swirl madly across the heavens, flame-like cypress trees reach upward in the foreground, and a quiet little town slumbers below. In the center of the town, a church steeple can be seen, though it is dwarfed by the dark cypresses and the magnificent violence raging across the night sky.
This was a small but dramatic exhibit and it was a rare treat to see these paintings, many borrowed from museums in The Netherlands, assembled together in one intimate gallery. I walked away from this exhibit with a renewed appreciation of the poetic soul and artistic vision of the tortured genius, Vincent Van Gogh.
Van Gogh’s early landscapes follow the traditions of Dutch landscape painting. However, Van Gogh introduced his innovative brushwork and the bright colors of the Impressionists to his twilight scenes. I was especially drawn to “Sunset at Montmartre” with its soft blues and greens and the fluid line of the wooden snow fence separating earth from sky. It is a delightful scene of nature, peaceful and simple, high above Montmartre. The intrusion of humanity is merely hinted at by the snow fence and the tendrils of smoke rising in the distance.
The section on peasant life celebrates the humble lives of the peasantry. Van Gogh sympathized with the hard-working poor and he wanted to depict the dignity of their struggle for existence. In “The Potato Eaters,” his first major painting, he presents a group of manual laborers eating their sparse meal of potatoes and coffee. It is an important painting, but I preferred “The Cottage,” which is just as dark and gloomy, but possesses a melancholic beauty that I don't find in the human figures.
The third section is marked by an explosion of color. Van Gogh’s paintings of sowers and wheatfields are less representational than his Dutch landscapes. “The Sower” is an extraordinary example of Van Gogh’s symbolic use of color. The sky is green with wispy pink clouds and an enormous yellow sun. The field where the sower labors is violet. The fantastical colors express a subjective reality that is at once familiar and surreal. Instead of merely copying reality, Van Gogh has revealed its essence. He allows the viewer to appreciate the scene from his perspective, for seeing through the eyes of another requires some disorientation; one must be shocked out of one’s ordinary mode of perception.
Van Gogh’s paintings of the town make up the next section. Here he depicts dance halls and cafes. “The Night Cafe,” for instance, is a sordid place colored with harsh red and green where lonely drunks sit slumped over their drinks under the glare of artificial light. The perspective of the painting is distorted so that the floor almost seems to slope violently to the left, creating a nightmarish sense of unreality.
There is a mood of despair and alienation in many of Van Gogh’s human environments compared to his splendid landscapes. I prefer scenes where people are just a part of the landscape rather than scenes where they predominate. “The Starry Night Over the Rhone” is a perfect example. The strolling couple take up only a small fraction of the canvas. The rest is given over to a magnificent blue-green sky full of twinkling stars, all of which is reflected in the river below.
But it is not only the natural settings that I find beautiful, for “Cafe Terrace at Night,” one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, is a human environment that is equally pleasing. The human figures are tiny and indistinct, so that it is the charm of the sidewalk cafe with its little bistro tables and chairs that takes center stage. I was disappointed that “Cafe Terrace at Night,” was not part of the exhibit, though there was at least Van Gogh’s sketch of the painting.
The culmination of the exhibit, Van Gogh’s country paintings, included his masterpiece “The Starry Night.” Now I’ve seen “The Starry Night” many times before, since this painting is one of MOMA’s own, but seeing it in the context of Van Gogh’s night paintings, and especially after seeing “A Starry Night Over the Rhone” is another thing altogether. The cosmic phenomena from the earlier painting are magnified in size and intensity. It is a purely imaginary scene, alive with spiritual significance: Blazing yellow stars swirl madly across the heavens, flame-like cypress trees reach upward in the foreground, and a quiet little town slumbers below. In the center of the town, a church steeple can be seen, though it is dwarfed by the dark cypresses and the magnificent violence raging across the night sky.
This was a small but dramatic exhibit and it was a rare treat to see these paintings, many borrowed from museums in The Netherlands, assembled together in one intimate gallery. I walked away from this exhibit with a renewed appreciation of the poetic soul and artistic vision of the tortured genius, Vincent Van Gogh.
August 21, 2013
Every once in a while fates bring you exactly the right thing at the right time. I have found this pearl in Van Gogh's museum in Amsterdam. If this guys wouldn't have written this book, then I would, because I was equally interested in this subject as presumably the authors were. I can only thank them for saving me hundreds of hours I would otherwise have to spend on research alone.
I've read it passionately and with zest and I can say the following: it is near perfect overview of the subject which also offers a lot of references for further studies. Within the book a lot of painters (Rembrandt, Millet and Delacroix...), writers and poets are mentioned, all of whom Vincent also studied and written about in his letters, which are properly quoted and numbered so it is easy to trace them on museum website and read in their entire length. The book and the internet resources provided by the publishers work really well together.
The entire volume looks at Van Gogh's opus several times over separately, each time with another point of interest, so it is normal to expect that certain paintings, points and even quotations will reappear trough out the book. The Potato Eaters are discussed at least three times (in terms of lighting, technique and Vincent's interest in peasants), but that doesn't bother much...
The array of topics covers practically everything; from subject matter to aesthetics and to technique with which it was painted. There is only one chapter that is missing and that would be a bit more medical one. I know it is almost a stereotype to think of Van Gogh as a lunatic with a brush and a canvas, and I applaud the authors for not bringing this up (like most authors do), but instead being focused on Vincent as an artist who worked during his healthier periods. But in this particular case, I think, it would really offer an illuminating point of view on his work. There is only one passage that specifically mentions this relationship (page 20):
"During his bout of mental illness in 1888-1890 Van Gogh was more than usually receptive to the specific mood of the evening and night, and above all to the solace that a night landscape could bring to him."
This appears with a reference to this letter which includes the following sentence:
"Ah, while I was ill, damp, melting snow was falling, I got up in the night to look at the landscape – never, never has nature appeared so touching and so sensitive to me."
To me that is more than a clue. It is a medical fact that bodily mechanisms work in different ways at night than during the day and many patients who suffer mental illness experience their "night-phases" completely differently. In some cases evenings and nights are the time when the symptoms cease their grip and leave the pour soul at rest. I think it wold be worth exploring what was Vincent's biorhythm and how did this affect his work. My suspicion is that his attacks were rather down so he could work and think more clearly. Probably that is why he was so much more susceptible for the night scenes, their serenity and their charms, which move healthy people too. Night casts its spells on all of us but just imagine how strong a victim to those spells must such a sensitive man (as Van Gogh was) be.
I've read it passionately and with zest and I can say the following: it is near perfect overview of the subject which also offers a lot of references for further studies. Within the book a lot of painters (Rembrandt, Millet and Delacroix...), writers and poets are mentioned, all of whom Vincent also studied and written about in his letters, which are properly quoted and numbered so it is easy to trace them on museum website and read in their entire length. The book and the internet resources provided by the publishers work really well together.
The entire volume looks at Van Gogh's opus several times over separately, each time with another point of interest, so it is normal to expect that certain paintings, points and even quotations will reappear trough out the book. The Potato Eaters are discussed at least three times (in terms of lighting, technique and Vincent's interest in peasants), but that doesn't bother much...
The array of topics covers practically everything; from subject matter to aesthetics and to technique with which it was painted. There is only one chapter that is missing and that would be a bit more medical one. I know it is almost a stereotype to think of Van Gogh as a lunatic with a brush and a canvas, and I applaud the authors for not bringing this up (like most authors do), but instead being focused on Vincent as an artist who worked during his healthier periods. But in this particular case, I think, it would really offer an illuminating point of view on his work. There is only one passage that specifically mentions this relationship (page 20):
"During his bout of mental illness in 1888-1890 Van Gogh was more than usually receptive to the specific mood of the evening and night, and above all to the solace that a night landscape could bring to him."
This appears with a reference to this letter which includes the following sentence:
"Ah, while I was ill, damp, melting snow was falling, I got up in the night to look at the landscape – never, never has nature appeared so touching and so sensitive to me."
To me that is more than a clue. It is a medical fact that bodily mechanisms work in different ways at night than during the day and many patients who suffer mental illness experience their "night-phases" completely differently. In some cases evenings and nights are the time when the symptoms cease their grip and leave the pour soul at rest. I think it wold be worth exploring what was Vincent's biorhythm and how did this affect his work. My suspicion is that his attacks were rather down so he could work and think more clearly. Probably that is why he was so much more susceptible for the night scenes, their serenity and their charms, which move healthy people too. Night casts its spells on all of us but just imagine how strong a victim to those spells must such a sensitive man (as Van Gogh was) be.
June 27, 2012
Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night is a series of essays about Van Gogh's works as they relate to his interest in depicting scenes, both rural and urban, that take place at dusk, twilight, and nighttime. His most famous work, The Starry Night, one of my favorite art pieces ever, graces the front cover. Lots of beautifully rich illustrations in this one, not only of Van Gogh's work but of other artists who inspired him, including Rembrandt, Seurat, Monet, and Jean-Francois Millet. Although I am much more of an art "enjoyer" than a student or fanatic, I did enjoy reading about how these paintings came to life, the techniques he used, the inspiration he found, and some of his own words, gleaned primarily from letters to his brother Theo and sister Wil. "When all sounds cease--God's voice is heard--under the stars."
January 3, 2015
Masterful examination of Van Gogh and what influenced him. The color printing is exceptionally good. This is a must-have book for van Gogh fans.
January 27, 2021
I read this book in less than a week. I loved the language it is written in. It is simple and easy to understand for a reader who may not be an expert in art. What I especially loved were excerpts from Van Gogh's letters to his family and friends, and numerous high quality illustrations.
July 27, 2023
4 🌟's
a great art history read with amazing graphics! only gripe is some pieces mentioned that seemed integral are not referenced which make it hard to follow along but overall, really informative and useful read!
a great art history read with amazing graphics! only gripe is some pieces mentioned that seemed integral are not referenced which make it hard to follow along but overall, really informative and useful read!
May 13, 2017
Essays interesting but nothing new.
June 29, 2021
Great specific details, with pictures of early studies and sketches. Really great study into the work of van gogh at night.
May 27, 2019
"It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly coloured than the day." - Vincent van Gogh
The night and twilight hours occupied Van Gogh's thoughts and imagination and served as the inspiration for many of his masterworks, from early paintings such as The Potato Eaters, to his later, expressionistic painting The Starry Night. Van Gogh was deeply fascinated by the nocturnal world long before he thought of becoming an artistic. He viewed the dark hours as a period of contemplation and creativity, a moment when he could reflect on the happenings of the day and express his inner thoughts on the beauty of the nocturnal landscape in letters to close friends and family. When Van Gogh decided to become an artist, his sentiments about the night informed his visual representations of it. He infused his depictions of the evening and nighttime environment with his ideas about the symbolic properties of these hours especially in connection to the cycles of life, the effects of modernity, and a romantic view of nature.
Van Gogh's night scenes offer rich layers of content. They are the result of tradition on one hand and modernity on the other. Some show the strong relationship that Van Gogh and his contemporaries perceived between the cycles of nature and those of rural labor. Others evoke a poetic association of the evening with either modern times or nature. Van Gogh's works and letters not only carried on the art historical tradition of twilight and night scenes but also reflected how his thoughts were influenced by literary sources. The stylistic and technical methods that Van Gogh applied to capture the effects of dark and light proved to be a rewarding field of investigation.
The night and twilight hours occupied Van Gogh's thoughts and imagination and served as the inspiration for many of his masterworks, from early paintings such as The Potato Eaters, to his later, expressionistic painting The Starry Night. Van Gogh was deeply fascinated by the nocturnal world long before he thought of becoming an artistic. He viewed the dark hours as a period of contemplation and creativity, a moment when he could reflect on the happenings of the day and express his inner thoughts on the beauty of the nocturnal landscape in letters to close friends and family. When Van Gogh decided to become an artist, his sentiments about the night informed his visual representations of it. He infused his depictions of the evening and nighttime environment with his ideas about the symbolic properties of these hours especially in connection to the cycles of life, the effects of modernity, and a romantic view of nature.
Van Gogh's night scenes offer rich layers of content. They are the result of tradition on one hand and modernity on the other. Some show the strong relationship that Van Gogh and his contemporaries perceived between the cycles of nature and those of rural labor. Others evoke a poetic association of the evening with either modern times or nature. Van Gogh's works and letters not only carried on the art historical tradition of twilight and night scenes but also reflected how his thoughts were influenced by literary sources. The stylistic and technical methods that Van Gogh applied to capture the effects of dark and light proved to be a rewarding field of investigation.
March 22, 2012
It was a nice compilation of his crepuscular and nocturnal pieces mixed with the letters associated with the art that were written to his brother, sister and some others.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews