The Starry Night ( ) is a painting by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh. The painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Reproduced often, the painting is widely hailed as his magnum opus.

Genesis

In September 1888, while van Gogh was staying in Arles, he executed a painting commonly known as Starry Night Over the Rhone and later he incorporated a pen drawing in a set of a dozen based on recent paintings. Van Gogh claimed to have a "terrible need for religion" when he painted Starry Night Over the Rhone.

In mid-September 1889, following a heavy crisis which lasted from mid-July to the last days of August, he thought to include this "Study of the Night" in the next batch of works to be sent to his brother, Theo, in Paris. In order to reduce the shipping costs, he withheld three of the studies ("above-mentioned – Poppies – Night Effect – Moonrise"). These three went to Paris with the shipment to follow. As Theo did not immediately report its arrival, Vincent inquired again, and finally received Theo's commentary on his recent work.

Subject matter

The center part shows the village of Saint-Rémy under a swirling sky, in a view from the asylum towards north. The Alpilles far to the right fit to this view, but there is little rapport of the actual scene with the intermediary hills which seem to be derived from a different part of the surroundings, south of the asylum. The cypress tree to the left was added into the composition. Of note is the fact van Gogh had already, during his time in Arles, repositioned Ursa Major from the north to the south in his painting Starry Night Over the Rhone.

Recent commentaries

• As pointed out by Simon Singh in his book Big Bang, The Starry Night has striking similarities to a sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy, drawn by Lord Rosse 44 years before van Gogh's work.
• The painting has been compared to an astronomical photograph of a star named V838 Monocerotis, taken by the Hubble in 2004. The clouds of gas surrounding the star resemble the swirling patterns van Gogh used in this painting.
• Art historian Joachim Pissarro cites The Starry Night as an exemplar of the artist's fascination with the nocturnal.

Aims and ends

Van Gogh was perhaps not so happy with this painting. In a letter to Theo from Saint-Rémy he wrote:

Later in this letter, Vincent referred once more to the painting:

Legacy

The painting was the inspiration for French composer Henri Dutilleux's orchestral work Timbres, Espace, Mouvement, American poet Anne Sexton's poem "The Starry Night", Canadian composer Giancarlo Scalia's piano composition Starry Night and for Don McLean's song "Vincent", which is also known by its opening words, "Starry, Starry Night." Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate singer Andrew McMahon has a tattoo of the painting on his arm. The painting has been recreated in the 3d world Second Life by artist Robbie Dingo, and the recreation was filmed and set to Don McLean's song. The painting made an appearance and had an important role in the fifth season episode "Starry Night" of Boy Meets World. Joe Satriani has a song entitled "Starry Night". The painting can also be spotted in a couple of scenes in the 2007 film I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.

Gallery

Image:Van-gogh-starry-night-left.jpgImage:Van-gogh-starry-night-upper-right.jpgImage:Van-gogh-starry-night-lower-right.jpgImage:Starry-night-in-moma-gallery.jpg

Resources

Notes

References

Boime, Albert: Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night. A history of matter, a matter of history (also available on CD-ROM: ISBN 3-634-23015-0 (German version))

External links

• Starry Night in the MoMA Online Collection
• smARThistory: van Gogh's Starry Night
• Multimedia study of van Gogh, McLean and Sexton
• On Exhibit at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam February 13-June 7 2009, retrieved January 31, 2009
• The Starry Night at the Most Famous Paintings