«The Starry Night», one of the most famous paintings in the world, created by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and kept in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, would have been inspired by the Eiffel Tower. This was supported by the English art historian James Hall, author of a study anticipated by the “Guardian”, according to which the “pyrotechnic music of the stars, the sky and the clouds” of the painting would recall the spectacular inauguration of the Parisian monument.
Art experts have long talked about the inspiration behind “The Starry Night” in which towering cypress trees are depicted in a swirling night sky above a hilltop village. Made during his imprisonment in an asylum near Saint-Rémy in southern France, it is one of the cypress paintings interpreted as an exploration of abstraction or a mystical evocation of nature.
Now Professor James Hall, professor at the University of Southampton, illustrates his new theory in the April issue of the scientific journal Burlington Magazine, explaining Van Gogh’s fascination for colossal monuments such as the Eiffel Tower. Hall claims that the artist began his painting in June 1889, shortly after the inauguration of the International Exposition, the opening of which was accompanied by a spectacular nightly display of fireworks, electric lights and explosions which, according to , are repeated in the “pyrotechnic music of the stars, the sky and the clouds” of Van Gogh’s painting.
Hall said: “For Van Gogh, the cypress is a natural alternative to the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the exhibition. The Starry Night is a rural and cosmic counterpart to the light show that marked the opening of the exhibition». In June 1889 Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: «The cypresses still worry me, I would like to make them something like canvases of sunflowers because it amazes me that no one has yet made them as I see them. It is beautiful in terms of lines and proportions, like an Egyptian obelisk». Hall added: ‘The Eiffel Tower has been hyped wildly as a symbol of French technological prowess even more impressive than that employed for the pyramids. Van Gogh idealized ancient Egypt and thought the cypress was as beautiful and well-proportioned as an obelisk».
The art historian also notes that in 1886, when Van Gogh had just arrived in Paris, a competition was held for the construction of the monument, won by Gustave Eiffel’s open-timbered wrought-iron engineering work, and that its design and preparation were constantly at the center of the news. In 1887 a Paris newspaper published a letter signed by leading artists and writers condemning it as a “dizzyingly ridiculous tower,” and by the time Van Gogh left Paris in February 1888 his building had already risen above the skyline, reaching the first platform.