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2022 Starry Night (1889) Tokelau G$1 Vincent Masterpieces (COA Name: Starry Night)
The obverse of the coin features the beautiful painting known as Starry Night, by Van Gogh. The painting depicts a small village with a church and a swirling night sky filled with stars, increscent moon, and other celestial elements.
The reverse of the coin shows the Effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, along with the inscriptions: "ELIZABETH II" - the name of the Queen, "TOKELAU 2022" – the country and the year of issue and "ONE DOLLAR" – the face value, "1/500 Oz" and "999/1000 FINE GOLD" – the weight and the fineness of the Gold.
Vincent Van Gogh Gallery:
Starry Night is one of the most recognized pieces of art in the world. It is absolutely everywhere, too. It can be seen on coffee, mugs, t-shirts, towels, magnets, etc. Honestly, it sometimes feels as if the painting’s fame has exceeded that of its creator. It is a magnificent piece of art. That Starry Night resonates with so many people is a testament to how its beauty is timeless and universal.
THE STORY OF STARRY NIGHT
Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh lived well in the hospital; he was allowed more freedoms than any of the other patients. If attended, he could leave the hospital grounds; he was allowed to paint, read, and withdraw into his own room. He was even given a studio. While he suffered from the occasional relapse into paranoia and fits - officially he had been diagnosed with epileptic fits - it seemed his mental health was recovering.
Unfortunately, he relapsed. He began to suffer hallucination and have thoughts of suicide as he plunged into depression. Accordingly, there was a tonal shift in his work. He returned to incorporating the darker colors from the beginning of his career and Starry Night is a wonderful example of that shift. Blue dominates the painting, blending hills into the sky. The little village lays at the base in the painting in browns, greys, and blues. Even though each building is clearly outlined in black, the yellow and white of the stars and the moon stand out against the sky, drawing the eyes to the sky. They are the big attention grabber of the painting.
THE WORK
Notice the brush strokes. For the sky they swirl, each dab of color rolling with the clouds around the stars and moon. On the cypress tree they bend with the curve of the branches. The whole effect is ethereal and dreamlike. The hills easily roll down into the little village below. In contrast, the town is straight up and down, done with rigid lines that interrupt the flow of the brush strokes. Tiny little trees soften the inflexibility of the town. Bringing nature into the unnaturalness of buildings.
One of the biggest points of interest about this painting is that it came entirely from Van Gogh’s imagination. None of the scenery matches the area surrounding Saint-Paul or the view from his window. As a man who religiously paints what he sees, it’s a remarkable break from Van Gogh’s normal work.
The contrast in styles plays on the natural versus the unnatural, dreams versus reality. Nature could even be attributed to the divine in this work. In Genesis 37:9, Joseph states, “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” - predicting that one day his family would bow to him as an authority. Some people associate this quote to the painting. Perhaps it is a reference to Van Gogh’s family, who doubted the success of his career (with the notable exception of his brother). It could be that Van Gogh simply wanted to breathe in the higher power into his art, as he grew up in a religious household. Divide the painting into three parts. The sky is the divine. It is by far the most dreamlike, unreal part of the painting, beyond human comprehension and just out of reach. Go down one level to the cypress, the hills, and the other trees on the ground. They bend and swirl, still soft angles that match the soft swirls of the sky. The last part is the village. The straight lines and sharp angles divide it from the rest of the painting, seemingly separating it from the “heavens” of the sky. However, note the dots of trees rolled through the village, how the spire of the church stretches up to the sky. Van Gogh brings God to the village.
Vincentvangogh.org
10 Secrets of this Vincent van Gogh Night Stars Painting
1) Vincent Van Gogh painted "Starry Night" in 1889 from a room in the mental asylum at Saint-Remy where was recovering from mental illness and his ear amputation.
2) Van Gogh painted the view from his east-facing window in the asylum 21 times. Although the series depicts various times of day and night and different weather conditions, all the works include the line of rolling hills in the distance. None show the bars on the window of his room.
3) The artist considered "The Starry Night," which one day would rank among his most famous works, to be a failure, according to what he wrote to his brother.
4) Physicist Jose Luis Aragon compared the turbulent play of light and dark in such works as "Starry Night" to the mathematical expression of turbulence in such natural occurrences as as whirlpools and air streams. He found they matched very closely. Two other Van Gogh paintings from 1890, WheatField with Crows and Road with Cypress and Star also feature this mathematical parallel. Aragon suggests that since the artist created these particular artworks during periods of extreme mental agitation, Van Gogh was uniquely able to accurately communication that agitation using precise gradations of luminescence.
5) Analysts of "Starry Night" emphasize the symbolism of the stylized cypress tree in the foreground, linking it to death and Van Gogh's eventual suicide. However, the cypress also represents immortality. In the painting, the tree reaches into the sky, serving as a direct connection between the earth and the heavens. The artist may have been making more of a hopeful statement than many credit him with. This positive interpretation of the cypress symbolism hearkens back to a letter to his brother in which the artist likened death to a train that travels to the stars.
6) In his 2015 book, "Cosmographics," Michael Benson contends that the inspiration behind the distinctive swirls in the sky of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is an 1845 drawing by astronomer William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, of the Whirlpool Galaxy.
7) Research has confirmed that the dominant morning star in the painting is actually Venus, which was in a similar position at the time Van Gogh was working on "Starry Night," and it would have shone brightly, just as Van Gogh painted it.
8) The moon in the painting would not have been in the crescent phase as shown at the time Van Gogh painted "Starry Night." In reality, it would have been gibbous, or about three-quarters full.
9) Pathologist Paul Wolf postulated in 2001 that the artist's fondness for yellow in paintings like "Starry Night" resulted from taking too much digitalis, a treatment in his day for epilepsy.
10) Where is Vincent van Gogh Starry Night painting? the Vincent van Gogh night stars painting has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941.
Tokelau
Tokelau is a remote group of atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, of which it's a territory. It's usually accessed by boat from Samoa, a trip that can take around 24 hours. Nukunonu atoll contains accommodation and a clear lagoon rich in marine life. Fakaofo has swimming pigs that famously catch fish near its coral reef. ― Google
Capitals: Fakaofo, Atafu, Nukunonu
Official languages: English, Tokelauan, Samoan
Government: Constitutional monarchy
Population: 1,411 (Oct 2011)
Area: 3.861 mi²
Currency: New Zealand Dollar
Assigned to New Zealand: 11 February 1926
Photos taken with Nikon D3300 DSL Camera with attached AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm F3.5-5.6G lens. Adobe Photoshop Elements used to fix any digital artifacts.