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Van Gogh's dramatic picture of the swirling night sky over Saint-Remy is familiar to lovers of postimpressionism everywhere. But when art history professor Albert Boime determined that the painting almost exactly represented the predawn sky of June 19, 1889, he realized there was much more to Starry Night than meets the eye. What he discovered was a fascinating convergence of historical forces. From the observatory atop the newly built Eiffel Tower, visitors could look down on the 1889 World's Fair, where the Third Republic was showcasing its far-flung colonies as well as the latest technological wonders. Jules Verne was taking readers to the moon, the ocean floor, and around the world in eighty days. Astronomy and astrolgy had seized the imagination of the public. Boime theorizes that Van Gogh, far from being an isolated lunatic (his brother and his friend Gauguin kept him posted), was in fact responding to these tumultuous times with Starry Night. The CD-ROM features almost two hours of audio and over 250 images link the central lecture to supplementary material as well as Van Gogh's correspondence, close-ups of Starry Night, entertaining contemporary illustrations and photographs, a delightful, illustrated essay on stellar phenomena in the work of painters from Giotto to Munch, and more. Immensely learned and completely engaging, this CD-ROM is art history at its most inspired. |
