The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

Starry Night (sometimes also: cypress and village) is maybe the most famous painting by Vincent van Gogh. Starry Night was painted it in June 1889 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, southern France, where van Gogh stood in the psychiatric clinic Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. The painting shows the view from his hostpital window. However, van Gogh probably painted Starry Night from his memory during day in a studio. We know few about why van Gogh chose this motif, though he mentioned Starry Night in a letter to his brother Theo (Letter Nr.595).

The pen drawing of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, sometimes believed to be the preliminary version of Starry Night, was actually executed after the painting.

The partially considered as a preliminary drawing Starry Night (formerly Kunsthalle Bremen) is after the painting, in the period between the 25th June and 2 July 1889 emerged. Unlike the painting, the drawing of Starry Night shows only ten stars and from the farmhouses smoke rises into the sky. The theme of a starry night already appeared in September 1888, when van Gogh’s executed his painting Starry Night Over the Rhone.