THE SELF-PORTRAIT… I visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam a few years ago, and more recently the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to see his self-portrait. Both experiences were unforgettable. The image of the sky is especially powerful, particularly the swooping spiral form that sweeps overhead. It felt to me as though a tremendous cosmic force had been made visible by the hand of the artist. The twin stars to the right of the painting exert a force between them like the binary stars that occur in the galaxy. It is a poetic vision of humanity’s place in the universe, whilst also showing the universe not as a hostile force but as a benign presence that is comforting and reassuring. In my opinion, that’s what gives this work its enduring power. It also gave rise to a sky that was reusable in a series of paintings, so powerful was the image. ON A STARRY, STARRY NIGHT… It’s worth remembering that Vincent painted nearly two works a day for the last year of his life. Starry Night was one of his signature works, and he most probably kept returning to it for two or three days. He would have drafted out his idea in pen and ink before getting on with the job of painting. There are lots of little complex moments in the painting, so the difficulty lies in capturing as many of those as possible whilst simultaneously keeping the paint surface lively and spontaneous. My copy is roughly ten per cent smaller than the original, as I originally painted it for myself. The frame is a hand-carved copy of the original frame, but in a slightly darker gilt finish. Starry Night was actually not a typical Van Gogh work, being a mixture of observation and imagination. It was painted in a lunatic asylum and was not considered a success by Van Gogh himself. Don McLean’s song from the 1970s helped to create the myth of Van Gogh, and by sentimentalising him in some ways did as much harm as good. However, the song was – and is – a powerful piece of work in itself. Directly referencing the title of the piece helped enormously to popularise the legend of Vincent and of his Starry Night painting.
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