Like many toy companies, LEGO has come to realise that selling directly to adults is just as lucrative as convincing kids to beg their parents for the latest sets. And what better way to convince grownups to welcome LEGO into their homes than with a set that recreates one of the most famous paintings of all time: Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”.
Painted by Van Gogh during his stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lasylum, where he self-admitted after famously mutilating his left ear months prior, the painting depicts the view from his second story room just before sunrise, with the addition of a village that wasn’t actually there.
Created in participation with New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) where the painting currently resides, the LEGO version is less than half the size of Van Gogh’s original, but manages to make the piece even more engaging by adding roughly five inches of depth detail to the masterpiece. The rolling hills, the swirling stars in the sky, the cypress tree, and even the tiny village now leap off the canvas into the third dimension.
The set even includes the first minifigure version of Vincent Van Gogh, finished with the same exaggerated brush stroke style of many of Van Gogh’s self-portraits, and a tiny easel with an even smaller version of “The Starry Night” on it. Both can be attached to the larger painting using a small arm and positioned as if the tiny Van Gogh is drawing inspiration from it.
The 2,316-piece, Vincent van Gogh – The Starry Night, is also another set born from the LEGO Ideas program where fans like Truman Cheng can submit their own brick-built creations and the company will consider turning them into real sets with enough support from the LEGO community. LEGO first announced this fan submission as a LEGO Ideas winner over a year ago, and it will finally go on sale starting on June 1 for A$259.99.