Thomas Merton and Vincent van Gogh Under the Stars

Trappist Blogging
in Honor of Thomas Merton's
100th Birthday:
Essay 4 of 6 on
"Fire Watch, July 4, 1952,"
the epilogue of 
The Sign of Jonas

Thomas Merton’s spiritual embrace of the night sky in “Fire Watch, July 4, 1952,” the epilogue to his book The Sign of Jonas, puts me in mind of Vincent van Gogh’s celebrations of the night.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples that the Kingdom of God is in their midst.  I like to think that when Thomas Merton and Vincent van Gogh looked up at the night sky, they saw the Kingdom in their midst, encompassing and challenging them.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888,
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
Musee d'Orsay.

Lane of Poplars at Sunset, 1884,
by Vincent van Gogh,
oil on canvas.
Kroller-Muller Museum.

The Old Tower at Dusk (1884)
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
Private Collection.

Country Road in Provence by Night (1890)
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
Kroller-Muller Museum.

Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon (1889)
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
Kroller-Muller Museum.

Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum (1888)
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
Kroller-Muller Museum.

Vincent van Gogh ran into a problem when he decided he wanted to paint the night sky, so much more visible in the town of Arles than it had been in well-lit Paris.  His subject turned out to be uncooperative.  Desiring to paint Impressionist-style, en plein air, Van Gogh set up his easel on a sidewalk, positioning himself under a gas light so he could see his paints.  But, naturally, the artificial light masked a thousand stars above, defeating his intention.  As a result, his first great nocturnal scene from Arles, Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, does a fine job of capturing the personality of the cafe but left him unsatisfied with its depiction of a starry night.

He kept trying, driven by love of art, nature, and a spiritual impulse that he couldn’t deny.  He wrote, “I have a terrible need of—shall I say the word?—religion.  Then I go out at night to paint the stars.”

Van Gogh wanted to capture the colors of the night in a new way that would shatter conventional depictions of a black sky with pinprick white stars.  He wrote to his brother Theo, describing the sky as he saw it during a nighttime walk along the seashore:

“The deep blue sky was flecked with clouds of a blue deeper than the fundamental blue of intense cobalt, and others of a clearer blue, like the blue whiteness of the Milky Way.  In the blue depth the stars were sparkling, greenish, yellow, white, pink, more brilliant, more emeralds, lapis lazuli, rubies, sapphires.”

I think Thomas Merton and Vincent van Gogh were kindred spirits.  Both were seized by strong religious yearnings while young and felt themselves called to a religious life.  Although personally dedicated to the Trappist traditions, Merton found that he continued to need artistic outlets, expressing his insights through prose and poetry.  He viewed his religion through the eyes of an artist.  In contrast, Van Gogh never found a religious base to call home.  Rejected in his ministerial calling, Van Gogh sublimated his essential religious nature into his art.

Thomas Merton embraced the night in “Fire Watch, July 4, 1952,” praising it as a gift of freedom:  “You have seen the morning and the night, and the night was better.”

Vincent van Gogh marveled at the night sky, witnessed a vision of vibrant cosmic creativity that he felt compelled to share, and he painted Starry Night.

Starry Night (1889)
by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),
oil on canvas.
The Museum of Modern Art.

Reference Sources

Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
The Sign of Jonas by Thomas Merton

Click here for the entire six-part Fire Watch series.

© 2015 Lee Price