In the manner of Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890
Starry Night over the Ring Road, 2026
Oil on canvas
90 × 72 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.9.4
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The sky is laid in long horizontal streaks of cobalt and yellow, a night made of traffic rather than stars. Below it the ring road curves away in ribbons of headlight, and in front a steel radio mast climbs the whole height of the picture, red lights blinking. Van Gogh put a cypress in exactly that place, a dark flame between earth and sky. The mast does the same job, and transmits.
The brief
A night sky of long horizontal streaks of cobalt and yellow over an elevated ring road with streaming headlights, a tall steel radio mast with red lights in the foreground, no cypress, no spirals, no crescent moon. Post-Impressionist oil painting, thick directional impasto strokes that swirl and vibrate, cobalt and chrome yellow in violent harmony, outlined forms, exaggerated perspective, energetic sky and ground, emotional intensity in ordinary subjects, heavy paint texture casting its own shadows. Museum photograph of the oil painting, even gallery lighting revealing impasto, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
