"Starry, starry night / Paint your palette blue and grey"
References van Gogh's most famous and recognizable work, "The Starry Night" which incorporates his techniques of swirls and a very vivid yet somber blue-gray pallet.
Look out on a summer's day/With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Both a reference to the dark themes in van Gogh's paintings and to the artist's struggles with depression.
Shadows on the hills / sketch the trees and the daffodils
All references to famous van Gogh works.
Catch the breeze and the winter chills / in colors on the snowy linen land.
Van Gogh is notable for his ability to imply movement and flow. The snowy linen land may refer to a snow-covered landscape, but doubtless also represents his blank canvass.
I think the chorus speaks for itself, expressing the writer's appreciation for the artist's frustration at his inability to express his feelings completely and the failure of society to appreciate his art.
Flaming flow'rs that brightly blaze / Swirling clouds in violet haze
Van Gogh painted many still lifes with flowers in vibrant colors, but this may refer to the stars in the painting "The Starry Night," surrounded by the swirling clouds of the painting's iconic night sky.
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue / colors changing hue
Van Gogh's self-portraits show him with bright, lively, blue eyes. His use of color and gradation are also notable.
Morning fields of amber grain / weathered faces lined in pain
Both reference paintings and themes of his. In his last weeks, van Gogh painted many canvasses in local wheat fields. Among his earlier works "The Potato Eaters" reflects an appreciation of weathered faces.
Are soothed beneath the artist's Loving hand
Van Gogh's empathy for such subjects is reflected in his paintings, which capture not (only) their likenesses, but the emotions.
For they could not love you / But still your love was true
Again refers to the painter's lack of success among his contemporaries.
And when no hope was left in sight / on that starry, starry night / you took your life
As lovers often do
A bit of poetic license, here; after years of mental illness, van Gogh attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest during the day.
But I could have told you, Vincent / this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.
Again the writer empathizes with van Gogh's feelings of being misunderstood and unappreciated.
Portraits hung in empty halls / frameless heads on nameless walls
with eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Van Gogh's paintings are his (somewhat empty) legacy; although they stand as a testament to his genius, they are a pale reflection of the artist's personality.
Like the stranger that you've met / the ragged men in ragged clothes
Again expressing van Gogh's empathy for his subjects and the similar empathy we can feel for him when viewing his work.
The silver thorn of bloody rose / lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
By allusion to Oscar Wilde's short story about a lover's unappreciated token, the writer both invokes van Gogh's famous act of cutting off his own ear to present to a prostitute and sets up his artistic works as the unappreciated gift of van Gogh to the world.
They would not listen / they're not listening still / perhaps they never will
The writer suggests that, for all the appreciation expressed for van Gogh's art by modern audiences and collectors, we still do not fully understand what van Gogh was trying to express through his art. And perhaps that is the ultimate fate of all art…to be misunderstood.
"Starry, starry night / Paint your palette blue and grey"
References van Gogh's most famous and recognizable work, "The Starry Night" which incorporates his techniques of swirls and a very vivid yet somber blue-gray pallet.
Look out on a summer's day/With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Both a reference to the dark themes in van Gogh's paintings and to the artist's struggles with depression.
Shadows on the hills / sketch the trees and the daffodils
All references to famous van Gogh works.
Catch the breeze and the winter chills / in colors on the snowy linen land.
Van Gogh is notable for his ability to imply movement and flow. The snowy linen land may refer to a snow-covered landscape, but doubtless also represents his blank canvass.
I think the chorus speaks for itself, expressing the writer's appreciation for the artist's frustration at his inability to express his feelings completely and the failure of society to appreciate his art.
Flaming flow'rs that brightly blaze / Swirling clouds in violet haze Van Gogh painted many still lifes with flowers in vibrant colors, but this may refer to the stars in the painting "The Starry Night," surrounded by the swirling clouds of the painting's iconic night sky.
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue / colors changing hue
Van Gogh's self-portraits show him with bright, lively, blue eyes. His use of color and gradation are also notable.
Morning fields of amber grain / weathered faces lined in pain
Both reference paintings and themes of his. In his last weeks, van Gogh painted many canvasses in local wheat fields. Among his earlier works "The Potato Eaters" reflects an appreciation of weathered faces.
Are soothed beneath the artist's Loving hand
Van Gogh's empathy for such subjects is reflected in his paintings, which capture not (only) their likenesses, but the emotions.
For they could not love you / But still your love was true
Again refers to the painter's lack of success among his contemporaries.
And when no hope was left in sight / on that starry, starry night / you took your life As lovers often do
A bit of poetic license, here; after years of mental illness, van Gogh attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest during the day.
But I could have told you, Vincent / this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.
Again the writer empathizes with van Gogh's feelings of being misunderstood and unappreciated.
Portraits hung in empty halls / frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Van Gogh's paintings are his (somewhat empty) legacy; although they stand as a testament to his genius, they are a pale reflection of the artist's personality.
Like the stranger that you've met / the ragged men in ragged clothes
Again expressing van Gogh's empathy for his subjects and the similar empathy we can feel for him when viewing his work.
The silver thorn of bloody rose / lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
By allusion to Oscar Wilde's short story about a lover's unappreciated token, the writer both invokes van Gogh's famous act of cutting off his own ear to present to a prostitute and sets up his artistic works as the unappreciated gift of van Gogh to the world.
They would not listen / they're not listening still / perhaps they never will
The writer suggests that, for all the appreciation expressed for van Gogh's art by modern audiences and collectors, we still do not fully understand what van Gogh was trying to express through his art. And perhaps that is the ultimate fate of all art…to be misunderstood.