The Starry Night | De Sterrennacht

Description

"I can see an enclosed square of wheat ... above which, in the morning, I watch the sun rise in all its glory"

Scent: Amsterdam Coffee Cup - Coffee essential oil, chocolate artificial oil
Texture: Thick and jiggly, coated clear topper

Background

De Sterrennacht, or Starry Night, by Vincent van Gogh, is widely regarded as the painter's magnum opus, and is perhaps one of the most recognized paintings in all of Western art.

Van Gogh completed this painting while staying voluntarily in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum in June of 1889.

While this painting depicts the night sky, it was worked on over several session during the daytime, under various weather conditions.  The painting is a combination of both real sights he could see through the bars of his window, and sights drawn from his imagination.  The village below the rolling hills would not have been in his line of sight, and the cypress tree in the foreground is much closer to the viewer than it was in real life.

In May of 1889 he wrote to his brother Theo and said "Through the iron-barred window I can see an enclosed square of wheat ... above which, in the morning, I watch the sun rise in all its glory."

Texture

While the mood of the painting is one of deep blue darkness and glowing yellow and white light, I chose a pale blue slime for this to reflect the colors in the middle, the swirls in the sky, and the haze above the hills.  

To capture Van Gogh's particular painting style, specifically the texture of the brush strokes, I included shredded pieces of tissue paper in the colors from the painting to evoke the broad strokes of color.

Scent

This slime is scented with a blend of coffee essential oil and artificial chocolate, to pay homage to the history of those two commodities in the Netherlands.  The Netherlands was the first country to mass produce cocoa powder, both for drinks and for chocolate bars after the process of separating cocoa butter from cocoa powder was discovered in 1828.  The Dutch began cultivating coffee in their colonies as early as 1699, and coffee was first sold in Amsterdam in 1711.  Combining these two aromas will set the scene of a quiet cafe in Amsterdam, where Van Gogh may have enjoyed a hot cup of coffee with chocolate.

Product Details

6oz version comes with handmade clay moon charm and baggie of shredded tissue paper, as well as 1oz blue coated clear topper.

2oz version comes with half ounce topper.

Both 2oz and 6oz versions come with miniature charm of the painting.

Research Sources
Netherlands
Dutch Coffee and The History of Coffee in the Netherlands
Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, Saint Rémy, June 1889
The Starry Night - Wikipedia