V. Van Gogh “Starry Night”
V. Van Gogh “Starry Night” (1889)
The painting “Starry Night” is another masterpiece, the author of which, the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), considered his failure. The work was recognized as a cult work after a while. The work even became an “icon” for the Expressionists. Expressionist artists did not strive to reproduce the world around them, but to convey to the viewer their own emotional state using form and color.
Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” while he was in a mental hospital in the south of France. Patients were forbidden to go outside, so the artist created it in the bedroom, looking out the window. The stars evoked special sensations in Van Gogh. He wrote to his brother: “Looking at the stars always makes me dream.”
The artist created the picture in a state of heightened perception of reality. This, according to art historians, as well as the power of imagination allowed him to see the night sky as no one had seen it before.
But the picture seems implausible only at first glance.
The vortex flows in the night sky, which Van Gogh depicted, according to researchers, are nothing more than turbulence, and the largest star with a white halo in the picture is Venus. This planet could be observed in the south of France just in May 1889. Assignment for the child:
Ask your child: what does he see in the picture? What surprises him when he looks at the work? What colors can he name?
V. Vasnetsov “The Sleeping Princess”
V. Vasnetsov “The Sleeping Princess” (1900-1926)
The famous Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) painted this painting, “The Sleeping Princess,” which is familiar to us from childhood, for almost 40 years, but never finished it. The general public saw the work after the author’s death, at an exhibition in 1927. The film was a huge success and was recognized as one of Vasnetsov’s best works.
“The Sleeping Princess” is part of the “Poem of Seven Tales” cycle, and the plot is based on “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights” by Alexander Pushkin and “The Sleeping Beauty” by Charles Perrault. The artist chose the episode when the young princess pricked herself with a spindle and fell into a long hundred-year sleep, and her entire kingdom fell asleep with her.
Vasnetsov is considered one of the first master painters who brought to life on his canvases the magical world of Russian fairy tales and epics. The artist's interest in ancient Russian culture arose while studying at a theological school and then at a seminary, where he studied the lives of saints, chronographs, chronicles, parables and folklore. Vasnetsov wrote about himself: “I am a storyteller, a writer of epics, a guslar of painting.”
In all the artist’s paintings, contemporaries noted the highest decorative skill of the artist, the variety of colors, ornaments and patterns in the traditions of Russian architecture.
It should be noted that during his life, Viktor Vasnetsov made contributions to a wide variety of areas of art - theatrical scenery and costumes, architecture and applied arts.
He created illustrations for the works of Pushkin and Lermontov, and devoted over ten years of his creative life to working on the paintings of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv. He also created sketches of the main facade of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane in Moscow. Task for the child:
Ask your child: who and what does he see in the picture? Let him remember the fairy tale? What colors did the artist use to paint the picture?
