“The Starry Night” is an oil-on-canvas depiction of a night scene in France portraying a cypress tree in the foreground along with a twisted yet mesmerizing sky, eleven explosive and magnified stars, and a quaint little village. The overwhelming night sky takes up most of the background. Van Gogh painted the sky with overlapping, rapid, and curving strokes that created a great dynamic, swirling motion. It's the night sky that seems to function as the life force, providing joie de vivre (joy of life) to this masterpiece. Galaxies are in motion and the stars could very well plunge into this sleepy town at any moment. The celestial ima

The massive and dark cypress stump, which lies in the foreground, aids in the stabilization of focalizing the eyes to the displayed canvas as a whole. It dulls the dazzling effect of the night sky with its intertwining, dark leaves weaving up the left sector of the depicted countryside. Dividing itself from the rest of the painting, it manages to create an affiliation between the earth and sky. It has a distinct form that seems completely uncharacteristic with the rest of the painting. The brushstrokes here are vertical and the choice of colors few. The tree appears to be a splotch of green and black oblivious to the established rhythm of the French landscape. Traditionally, a cypress symbolizes death and mourning, which makes the appearance of the tree in itself, a tad bit disturbing. It upsets the balance to what had could have been a magical rendering of a starry night and turns it into fantasy with a hint of reality.

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