Hi again and welcome back.

This Mid-Autumn Festival, when you look up in the sky to appreciate the bright full moon, would any of the art works you have seen jump into your mind?

For me, when I look up at the moon and stars, I often think of Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.

When you hear the name of Vincent van Gogh, what is your first impression?

A famous painter who created some of the most expensive paintings in the world? A mad man who cut off his ear and then killed himself? Or a playful artist whose works are filled with bright and maddening colors?

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of western art.

In just over a decade, he created about over 2000 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life, these paintings are characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brush work that contributed to the foundations of Modern Art.

He was unsuccessful during his lifetime. And he was considered a mad man and a failure. His suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.

He became famous after his suicide and exists in the public imagination as a misunderstood and tortured genius. And his art works are often seen as a combination of madness and creativity.

But today we're not going to introduce his works. Instead I would like to share with you a song that might sound familiar to some of you.

This song is called Vincent , written by American singer, songwriter, Don McLean, as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh.

And going through the lyrics, you see many reference to the artist's life and works.

And this is how it starts:

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

Starry Night is perhaps one of the most famous of his paintings. And it was painted while van Gogh was hospitalized for his mental illness, and his behaviour was very unpredictable. So unlike most of his works, because he was not allowed to go out at night, Starry Night was actually painted from memory and not outdoors.

And the song goes on:

Shadows on the hills

Sketch the trees and the daffodils

Catch the breeze and the winter chills

In colors on the snowy linen land

These few lines include reference to his landscape works.

And then the second verse of the song:

Starry, starry night

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze

Swirling clouds in violet haze

Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

If you have ever seen his famous Sunflowers, flaming flowers that brightly blaze.

And the swirling clouds actually refer to Starry Night.

And the song goes on:

Colors changing hue

Morning fields of amber grain

Weathered faces lined in pain

Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

Now I understand

What you tried to say to me

And how you suffered for your sanity

And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how

Perhaps they'll listen now

This part is about how Vincent was not understood during his lifetime and about his lifelong struggle with mental illness.

And about van Gogh's tragic death, the song says:

For they could not love you

But still your love was true

And when no hope was left in sight

On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do

But I could have told you, Vincent

This world was never meant for one

As beautiful as you

Before you enjoy this song Vincent, I would like to share with you a quote from the artist himself in the letter he wrote to his brother Theo.

"Dear Theo", he said, "What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person - someone who has no position in society and will never have, in short, the lowest of the low".

"All right then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.

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