Dreaming of Starry Nights

Perhaps one of my favorite artists of all time is Vincent Van Gogh. I don’t know. There’s something about his paintings that give me this dreamy, whimsical feeling – the kind of feeling where you believe all things are possible. Knowing Van Gogh mainly for the stirring he brought about from his infamous ear experience, I wanted to do a little research on the man who brought so much beauty into the world.

Born in Holland, Vincent William Van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter. Raised mainly in Holland and spending quite a bit of his younger years in Paris, Van Gogh felt a pull later in his life to the clean and beautiful skies of Provence. And it was perhaps here that he produced some of his best work. Living in Arles, Van Gogh’s creativity, productivity and madness all reached a climax. He worked for a short while with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, eventually driving him away. In one year alone, he painted nearly 200 canvases, all the while living in intense isolation and an immense suffering. In fact the only main contact he had with the outside world was in his letters he’d write to his patient brother Theo.

The townspeople of Arles though were not as patient with him. A heavy drinker, and occasional user of whores, Van Gogh offended the majority of his neighbors. So much so that in 1889 the people of Arles petitioned to have him evicted. The shock of this left him even more unable to cope with life, eventually leading him to self-commit himself to an asylum in St-Rémy.

Most of Van Gogh’s paintings are now in Moscow and Amsterdam, so you can’t view them in France. However, you can visit many of the places that inspired his works in Arles. Starry Night may have been painted from the Quai du Rhône just off Place Lamartine. The Café La Nuit on Place Forum is exactly reminiscent for the terrace platform, scattered with tables and immersed in gaslight under the stars, from the painting Terrace de café le Soir. In fact, Van Gogh and Gauguin used to frequent here often.

So it seems to me that to learn more about this magnificent artist and his traumatic, yet beautiful life, I need to venture to the French countryside. And Provence couldn’t be a more amazing vacation destination. If you’re interested as well, Sceptre Tours has great European River Cruise packages that travel right through this region.