Art - The Starry Night - By Van Gogh
The Starry Night is an oil on canvas by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it describes the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an ideal village. Regarded as among Van Gogh's finest works, The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture. 《星夜》是荷兰后印象派画家文森特·梵高的油画。这幅油画于1889年6月完成，描绘了他在普罗旺斯圣雷米的精神病院的房间里朝东的窗户，在日出前，在一个理想的村庄里看到的情景。《星夜》被认为是梵高最优秀的作品之一，是西方文化史上最著名的绘画作品之一。
With its seductive swirls, intoxicating composition, and enchanting color palette, Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night is one of the world's most beloved and well-known works of art. In its creation and eventual success, there's much more to this Starry Night than you might have known. 文森特·梵高的《星夜》以其诱人的漩涡、令人陶醉的构图和迷人的色彩，成为世界上最受欢迎和最著名的艺术作品之一。在它的创造和最终的成功中，这个星光灿烂的夜晚比你可能知道的要多得多。
1. It depicts Van Gogh’s view from an asylum. 它描绘了梵高从精神病院的窗口看到的景象。
After experiencing a mental breakdown in the winter of 1888, van Gogh checked himself into the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The view became the basis of his most iconic work. Of his inspiration, van Gogh wrote in one of his many letters to his brother Theo, "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big." 1888年冬天，梵高精神崩溃后，住进了普罗旺斯附近的圣保罗·德·莫索尔精神病院。这一景观成为他最具标志性的作品的基调。梵高在给他哥哥提奥的许多信中写道：“今天早上，离日出还很久之前，我从窗口看到了这个世界，除了晨星，什么都没有，它看起来很大。”
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear is an 1889
梵高1889年画的《戴着绷带的耳朵的自画像》
2. He left out the iron bars. 他的画作中避开了铁窗。
Art historians have determined that van Gogh took some liberties with the view from his second story bedroom window, a theory supported by the fact that the studio in which he painted was on the building's first floor. He also left out the window's less-than-welcoming bars, a detail he included in another letter to Theo. In May of 1889, he wrote, "Through the iron-barred window. I can see an enclosed square of wheat ... above which, in the morning, I watch the sunrise in all its glory." 艺术史学家认为梵高从二层卧室的窗户里随意地看到了这一点，这一理论得到了梵高画室在一楼这一事实的支持。他还漏掉了窗户上不太欢迎的铁条，在给提奥的另一封信中他还写了一个细节。1889年5月，他写道：“穿过铁窗。我可以看到一个封闭的小麦广场…到了早晨，我在上面观看太阳在万有荣光中升起。
3. The village was more creative license than reality. 这个村庄比现实更具创造性。
From his window, van Gogh wouldn't have been able to see Saint-Rémy. However, art historians differ on whether the village presented in The Starry Night is pulled from one of van Gogh's charcoal sketches of the French town or if it is actually inspired by his homeland, the Netherlands. 从他的窗口，梵高根本看不到圣雷米。然而， 《星夜》中呈现的村庄究竟是从梵高的一幅法国小镇木炭素描中提取出来的，还是从他的家乡荷兰那里得到的灵感，艺术史学家们还存在着分歧。
4. The Starry Night may be about mortality. 星光灿烂的夜晚或可是有关死亡。
The dark spires in the foreground are cypress trees, plants most often associated with cemeteries and death. This connection gives a special significance to this van Gogh quote, "Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Why I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star." 前景中黑暗的塔尖是柏树，植物通常与墓地和死亡有关。这一联系对梵高的这句名言有着特殊的意义，“看着星星总是让我浮想联翩。我问自己，为什么天空中的光点不是像法国地图上的黑点那样容易到达呢？就像我们坐火车去塔拉斯康或鲁昂的那样，我们要到死，才能到达一颗星星。”
5. This was not Van Gogh's first Starry Night. 这不是梵高的第一个繁星之夜。
The Starry Night that is world-renowned was painted in 1889. But the year before, van Gogh created his original Starry Night, sometimes known as Starry Night Over The Rhone. After his arrival in Arles, France in 1888, van Gogh became a bit obsessed with capturing the lights of the night sky. He dabbled in its depiction with Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, before daring to make his first Starry Night draft with the view of the Rhone River. 这幅闻名于世的《星夜》是1889年画的。但在前一年，梵高创造了他最初的星夜，有时被称为《罗纳的星夜》。1888年梵高抵达法国阿尔勒后，他开始有点沉迷于捕捉夜空的星光。他在《星空下的咖啡座》上轻描淡写，然后才斗胆在罗纳河的景色下画出他第一幅星光熠熠的夜景。
6. Van Gogh considered The Starry Night a "failure." 梵高认为“星夜”是一幅“失败的作品”。
Surveying the works that would become known as his Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Remy series, he wrote to Theo, "All in all the only things I consider a little good in it are the Wheatfield, the Mountain, the Orchard, the Olive trees with the blue hills and the Portrait and the Entrance to the quarry, and the rest says nothing to me." 他向提奥写了一封信，对后来被称为圣保罗精神病院的圣雷米系列作品进行了调查，信中写道：“在我看来，只有麦田、山、果园、蓝色山丘的橄榄树、肖像和采石场入口才是我认为还不错的，其余的我都不喜欢。”
7. Van Gogh unknowingly painted Venus. 梵高在不知情的情况下画了金星。
In 1985, UCLA art historian Albert Boime compared Starry Night to a planetarium recreation of how the night's sky would have appeared on June 19, 1889. The similarities were striking and proved that van Gogh's "morning star," as referenced in his letter to his brother, was, in fact, the planet Venus. 1985年，加州大学洛杉矶分校的艺术历史学家阿尔伯特·博伊姆将星空之夜比作天文馆对1889年6月19日夜空的再现。相似之处是惊人的，并且证明了梵高在写给弟弟的信中提到的“晨星”实际上是金星。
8. Van Gogh sold only one or two paintings in his life—and neither was The Starry Night. 梵高一生只卖过一两幅画，而哪幅都不是这幅《星夜》。
The one known for sure to have been sold was the far lesser known The Red Vineyard at Arles, which was completed in November 1888, before the breakdown that sent him to the asylum. Belgian artist and collector Anna Boch purchased it for 400 francs at the Les XX exhibition in 1890. Today this historic painting is on display at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. But there is evidence that van Gogh sold a second painting. In his biography of the artist, historian Marc Edo Tralbaut talked about a letter from Theo saying one of van Gogh’s self portraits found its way to a London art dealer. 众所周知的肯定已经被出售的是远不为人所知的阿尔勒红葡萄园，该葡萄园于1888年11月完工，在他被送往收容所的崩溃之前。比利时艺术家和收藏家安娜·波赫在1890年的Lesxx展览上以400法郎的价格买下了这幅作品。今天，这幅历史性的画作在莫斯科普希金美术馆展出。但有证据表明梵高出售了第二幅画。在他的艺术家传记中，历史学家马克·埃多·特劳博谈到了西奥的一封信，信中说梵高的一幅自画像找到了去伦敦一家艺术品经销商的路。
9. The Starry Night was twice owned by Theo's widow. 《星夜》两次归西奥的遗孀所有。
Following van Gogh's death in 1890, Theo inherited all of his brother's works. But when he died in the fall of 1891, his wife Johanna Gezina van Gogh-Bonger became the owner of Starry Night and scads of other paintings. It was van Gogh-Bonger who collected and edited the brothers' correspondence for publication, and she is credited with building van Gogh's posthumous fame, thanks to her tireless promotions of his work and exhibitions. 梵高1890年去世后，提奥继承了他哥哥的所有作品。但当他在1891年秋天去世时，他的妻子约翰娜·格兹娜·梵高·邦格成为《星夜》和其他众多画作的主人。正是梵高·邦格收集并编辑了这对兄弟的书信以供出版，也是由于她对梵高作品和展览的不懈推广，才使得梵高在死后的名声大作。
In 1900, van Gogh-Bonger sold Starry Night to French poet Julien Leclerq, who soon sold it to Post-Impressionist artist Émile Schuffenecker. Six years later, she bought the painting back from Schuffenecker so she could pass it along to the Oldenzeel Gallery in Rotterdam. 1900年，梵高·邦格把《星夜》卖给法国诗人朱利安·莱克莱尔，后者很快就把它卖给了后印象派艺术家米利·舒芬内克。六年后，她从舒芬内克那里买回来了这幅画，这样她就可以把它传给鹿特丹的奥登泽尔画廊了。
10. The Starry Night now lives in New York thanks to Lillie P. Bliss. 多亏了莉莉·P·布利斯，这个星夜现在住在纽约。
Bliss was the daughter of a textile merchant who used her grand wealth to become one of the foremost collectors of modern art in the early 20th century. Alongside Mary Quinn Sullivan and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, she helped found Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art. Following her death in 1931, The Lillie P. Bliss Bequest turned much of her collection over to MoMA, creating the nucleus of the museum’s collection in the midst of the Great Depression. In 1941, three pieces from Bliss's impressive collection were sold so that MoMA could acquire Starry Night. 布利斯是一位纺织商人的女儿，她利用自己的巨额财富成为20世纪初最重要的现代艺术收藏家之一。除了玛丽·奎因·沙利文和艾比·奥尔德里奇·洛克菲勒，她还帮助建立了曼哈顿的现代艺术博物馆。1931年她去世后，莉莉·P·布利斯的遗赠将她的大部分藏品移交给了MoMA，在大萧条期间，她创造了博物馆核心藏品。1941年，从布利斯收藏的三件印象派作品被出售，于是MoMA获得了“星夜”这幅画。
11. The lights of The Starry Night seem to flicker because of how the human brain works. 由于人脑的工作方式，星夜的灯光似乎在闪烁。
In this Avi Ofer-animated TED-Ed video, Natalya St. Clair further explains how van Gogh's painting is an accurate depiction of turbulence, "one of the most supremely difficult concepts nature has ever brought before mankind." 在这段阿维·奥弗的动画片《TED》中，娜塔莉亚·圣克莱尔进一步解释了梵高的绘画是如何准确地描绘动荡的，“大自然带给人类的最困难的概念之一”。
post-impressionist 后印象派
swirls 旋涡
recognized 知名的
palette 调色板；色调
charcoal sketches 炭笔素描
world-renowned 举世闻名
flicker 闪烁
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