Starry Night Over the Rhône

The second painting in the collection is Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhône, a piece that was done at the same time as Van Gogh’s arguably most famous piece, Starry Night. The formerly stated painting depicts a wide view of the riverbank of the Rhône and the night sky above the water. Van Gogh illustrates an organic blend of urban life and natural landscapes, as he continues his passion for depicting nocturnal light (Starry Night). In the piece Van Gogh uses perspective and thick, visible brush strokes to extend the water and riverbank, as well as making the night sky appear endless in the distance. At the foreground of the piece, an elderly couple stands together on the shore, appearing miniscule compared to the extensive lake and surrounding landscape. Despite the clear use of very thick brush strokes in his work, Van Gogh captures the essence of the water beautifully, both with the reflections on the water and the surface disturbance in the bottom corner. One big reason that this piece was chosen for this collection is because Van Gogh depicts the urbanized riverbanks as a mere ‘afterthought’ in comparison to the natural scene, clearly being more of the focus of the piece. The houses and buildings are faintly placed on the edges of the landscape, appearing as an insignificant presence compared to the powerful natural presence of the river and sky. Thus, these artistic elements hint that nature is untamed and powerful, as well as mysterious and seemingly boundless.

In 1888 when this painting was done, art was nearing the end of the impressionist movement, which was originally in response to the Realism movement. Commonly classified as a post-Impressionist, Van Gogh fit that classification through his use of vivid colors, thick application of paint, and thick, distinctive brush strokes. Like many other Impressionists and post-Impressionists, Van Gogh depicted real-life subject matter, but unlike the Realists who focused on making everything appear perfectly life-like, he painted a subjective representation of the setting (Post-Impressionism). Although Van Gogh fits much of the criteria for post-Impressionism, he skewed from that path in ways that would influence 20^th century art to come.