“At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without my expatiating on this theme it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.”

— Vincent Van Gogh

Last update Jan. 9, 2025. History

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Vincent Van Gogh 238

Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853–1890

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“We have seven colours — violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red (Roy G. Biv). Our atmosphere has a number of particles and when light falls on them, it gets scattered. With blue colour having less wavelength and more scattering qualities, it scatters and makes the sky blue. While red colour has opposite qualities than blue so traffic lights are of this colour.”

Jayant Narlikar (1938) Indian physicist

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“Starry starry night,
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul…”

Don McLean (1945) American Singer and songwriter

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“Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized.

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Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

“How do you see this tree? Is it really green? Use green, then, the most beautiful green on your palette. And that shadow, rather blue? Don't be afraid to paint it as blue as possible.”

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist

Comment voyez-vous cet arbre? Il est bien vert? Mettez donc du vert, le plus beau vert de votre palette; — et cette ombre, plutôt bleue? Ne craignez pas la peindre aussi bleue que possible.
Quote from a conversation in 1888, Pont-Aven, with Paul Sérusier as cited by w:Maurice Denis, inL'influence de Paul Gauguin, in Occident (October 1903) and published in Du symbolisme au classicisme. Théories (1912), ed. Olivier Revault d'Allonnes (Paris, 1964), p. 51.
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“How is it possible still to see the human face pink, now that our life, redoubled by noctambulism, has multiplied our perceptions as colourists? The human face is yellow, red, green, blue, violet.”

Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) Italian painter and sculptor

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“The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.”

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“The colours red, blue and green are real. The colour yellow is a mystical experience shared by everybody.”

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“In Antwerp I did not even know what the Impressionists were, now I have seen them and though not being one of the club, yet I have much admired certain Impressionist pictures – Degas, nude figure – Claude Monet, landscape. And now for what regards what I myself have been doing, I have lacked money for paying models, else I had entirely given myself to figure painting but I have made a series of colour studies in painting simply flowers, red poppies, blue corn flowers and myosotys. White and rose roses, yellow chrysantemums – seeking oppositions of blue with orange, red and green, yellow and violet, seeking THE BROKEN AND NEUTRAL TONES to harmonise brutal extremes. Trying to render intense COLOUR and not a grey harmony.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote of Vincent van Gogh in his letter to Horace Mann Livens, from Paris, September or October 1886; from letter 569 - vangoghletters online http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let569/letter.html
1880s, 1886

“Only the blue sky, green land alliance can make Taiwan better.”

Annette Lu (1944) Taiwanese politician

Annette Lu (2006) cited in " Politicians of all stripes honor Chiang Wei-shui http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/08/06/2003322033" on Taipei Times, 6 August 2006.

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange, and if you put in blue, then you must put in yellow, and orange too, mustn't you? Oh well, you will tell me that what I write to you are only banalities.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Letter to Émile Bernard, June 1888, in 'Van Gogh's Letters'. http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/B06.htm
1880s, 1888

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Vincent Van Gogh 238

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