The Stories of the Mona Lisa: An Imaginary Museum Tale about the History of Modern Art

The Stories of the Mona Lisa: An Imaginary Museum Tale about the History of Modern Art — page 5
She looks pretty against the blue sky This is Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh a Dutch painter who lived in France It looks like it’s made up of waves Van Gogh put his troubles and torments onto the canvas Is that how he saw the Mona Lisa We see just as much with our hearts as we do with our eyes Why did he paint if he was so sad Because painting made him feel better and less anxious took him away from his black moments as he used to say Ah-ha He put suns in the sky to make everything better Without a doubt He also painted sunflowers plants that look like the sun and are always pointing towards its rays The strange thing is that his self-portraits are done in the same reds and yellows as his sunflowers Did he want to be a sunflower I’m not sure he wanted to really be one But just like them he was always looking for the best possible light That’s why he moved to Arles which is a very sunny town in the south of France He was obsessed with light both exterior and interior As a young man he wanted to be a pastor so that he could preach about spiritual light to the men who worked overnight in the coal mines of Northern France Was he an Impressionist like Monet At that time almost everyone was The difference was that Monet painted what he could see whereas Van Gogh painted what he felt inside You could say that he was expressing his own impressions 8 imPressionism VinCenT Van GoGh 1853 1890