Van Gogh is one of my favourite artists. The painting “Starry Night” is one of his most beloved. It is an authentic landscape and a projection of Van Gogh’s inner being— vortexes of deep azure spin around stars and a crescent moon. Giant green, black cypress tree blows in the wind. It has been said it is a reminder of the burning bush in the ‘old testament’. Low, the village, perhaps like most of us, is comfortable in its ignorance of the cosmic events.
He attempts to unite the sun and the moon into one figure, a vague symbol of human striving. e painting is energised by the impulsive, quick flow of brushstrokes that magnify the feeling in the work. e way he saw the landscape was a collection of curves and the stars as great, flaming balls.
I recently watched Dr Who. The Doctor and Amy take Vincent Van Gogh (who sold a single painting in his lifetime) to a Paris art Gallery in 2010. B ll Nighy’s short monologue encapsulates the beauty of Van Gogh’s paintings. I found it a surprisingly moving scene for a piece of speculative fiction.