''Starry Night'' (September 1888, french: La Nuit étoilée), commonly known as ''Starry Night Over the Rhône'', is one of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

's paintings of

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province ...

at night. It was painted on the bank of the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

that was only a one or two-minute walk from the Yellow House on the Place Lamartine, which Van Gogh was renting at the time. The

night sky The night sky is the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a night sky in ...

and the effects of light at night provided the subject for some of van Gogh's more famous paintings, including ''

Café Terrace at Night ''Café Terrace at Night'' is an 1888 oil painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. It is also known as ''The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum'', and, when first exhibited in 1891, was entitled ''Coffeehouse, in the evening'' (''Café, le ...

'' (painted earlier the same month) and the June, 1889, canvas from Saint-Remy, ''

The Starry Night ''The Starry Night'' ( nl, De sterrennacht) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Prove ...

''. A sketch of the painting is included in a letter van Gogh sent to his friend

Eugène Boch Eugène Boch (1 September 1855 – 3 January 1941) was a Belgian painter, born in Saint-Vaast, La Louvière, Hainaut. He was the younger brother of Anna Boch, a founding member of Les XX. Life Eugène Boch was born into the fifth generation ...

on 2 October 1888. ''Starry Night'', which is now in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

in Paris, was first exhibited in 1889 at Paris' annual exhibition of the

Société des Artistes Indépendants The Société des Artistes Indépendants (''Society of Independent Artists'') or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "''sans ...

. It was shown together with van Gogh's '' Irises'', which was added by Vincent's brother,

Theo Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

, although Vincent had proposed including one of his paintings from the public gardens in Arles.

Subject matter

The view is from the

quay A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locatio ...

on the east side of the Rhône, into the knee of the river towards the western shore: coming down from the north, the Rhône turns to the right at this point to surround the rocks on which Arles is built. From the towers of Saint-Julien and Saint-Trophime at the left, the spectator follows the east bank up to the iron bridge connecting Arles to the suburb of Trinquetaille on the right, western bank. This implies a view from Place Lamartine towards the southwest. Though, as noted below this is not consistent with the stars portrayed as

the Plough The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl ...

in Ursa Major would not be visible in that direction.

Genesis

Van Gogh announced and described this composition in a letter to his brother Theo: In reality, the view depicted in the painting faces ''away'' from

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

, which is to the north. The foreground indicates heavy rework, wet-in-wet, as soon as the first state was finished.For a tracing of the original composition see Roland Dorn 1990, ill. p. 388 The letter sketches executed at this time probably are based on the original composition.

Colours of the night

The challenge of painting at night intrigued van Gogh. The vantage point he chose for ''Starry Night'' allowed him to capture the reflections of the

gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly ...

in Arles across the glimmering blue water of the

. In the foreground, two lovers stroll by the banks of the river. Depicting

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

was of great importance to Vincent; in letters to his brother,

, he often described objects in his paintings in terms of colour. His night paintings, including ''Starry Night'', emphasize the importance he placed on capturing the sparkling colors of the night sky and of the artificial lighting that was new to the era.

References

Sources

* Boime, Albert
''Van Gogh's Starry Night: A History of Matter and a Matter of History''
. Arts Magazine. 59 (4): 86–103. (also available on CD-ROM: (German version)) * Dorn, Roland: ''Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles'', Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich & New York 1990 / ISSN 0175-9558

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Starry Night Over The Rhone Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Paintings of Arles by Vincent van Gogh 1888 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay Ships in art