Nocturne – Van Gogh at the National Gallery (VIII)

 

Despite being in the painting’s presence numerous times, I had never been able to get close to Starry Night over the Rhône. At its permanent home, the Musée d’Orsay, it was always surrounded by a crowd that was four or five deep; likewise, when it was on show at the Tate Britain a few years ago. No matter, on my fourth visit to the National Gallery Van Gogh exhibition, I spotted my chance and jostled myself into place. 

Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhône (1888)

 

The application of the paint, seemingly ad-hoc - but oh so controlled - is a wonder. The tessellated brushstrokes - various lozenges of blue for the sky and river, and yellow and gold for the long reflections of the stars falling onto the water - and then the bold, oil-slick impasto of the riverbank. And those stars - getting your eyes as close as possible to what resemble blobs of dried egg-yolk accidentally spilled onto the canvas. I love that Van Gogh has taken the care to accurately affix the constellation of Ursa Major - or ‘The Plough’ as I was taught as a child - into the painting.

 

Van Gogh, detail of Starry Night over the Rhône (1888)

It is an astonishing piece of art. Painted outdoors under a gas light, it oozes atmosphere. How inviting the city of Arles looks, too: alive, mysterious, magical.  

 

Van Gogh, detail of Starry Night over the Rhône (1888)

And what of the two lovers at the bottom of the frame, rendered almost inconsequential in a vast and unknowable universe? They almost seem like an afterthought. Indeed, they were not in-situ and were invented and placed there by the artist. Doesn’t that show how fleeting life is?   

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Postscript: 

A couple of nights ago, I attended a wonderful revival of Tom Stoppard’s play The Invention of Love. The subject matter of the recently dead poet A.E. Housman awaiting Charon to row him across the Styx, suddenly made me see Starry Night over the Rhône anew. Are the two lovers, almost clumsily cast in the deep foreground, disembarking into Hades after being rowed across the Styx?