The Starry Night - Genesis

Genesis

In September 1888, before his December breakdown that resulted in his hospitalisation in Arles, he painted Starry Night Over the Rhone. Van Gogh wrote about this painting::

"... it does me good to do what’s difficult. That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word — for religion — so I go outside at night to paint the stars.'"

In mid-September 1889, following a heavy crisis which lasted from mid-July to the last days of August, he thought to include Starry Night in the next batch of works to be sent to his brother, Theo, in Paris. In order to reduce the shipping costs, he withheld three of the studies, including Starry Night. These three went to Paris with the shipment that followed. When Theo did not immediately report its arrival, Vincent inquired again and finally received Theo's commentary on his recent work.

Read more about this topic:  The Starry Night

Famous quotes containing the word genesis:

    Nature centres into balls,
    And her proud ephemerals,
    Fast to surface and outside,
    Scan the profile of the sphere;
    Knew they what that signified,
    A new genesis were here.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
    —Bible: Hebrew Genesis 1:29.

    But in a later context, God told the disgraced Adam, “and thou shalt eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:18)

    Power is, in nature, the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing and therefore self-relying soul.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)