‘The Starry Night’ By

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)

Vincent Van Gogh painted ‘The Starry Night’ in June 1889. He was living in Saint Remy in the South of France. Vincent was suffering from a mental illness and was staying in a hospital. He wrote to his brother Theo about the painting….

“This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big. Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as easy to reach as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.”

• A self portrait by Van Gogh painted while he was living in the South of France and a photograph thought to be of him.

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Van Gogh painted this view of the harbour at Arles in September 1889 (nearly a year before ‘Starry Night’). The challenge of painting at night interested Van Gogh and he tried to capture the reflections of the gas lights across the glimmering blue water of the River Rhone. In the sky is the constellation of the ‘Great Bear’. In the foreground is a couple strolling by the banks of the river.

While he was living in Arles, Van Gogh painted this picture called ‘The Night Café’. The café still exists today. It was also painted in September 1888.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the “beautiful blue, violet and green” colours and the gigantic yellow lamp lighting up the whole terrace.

The painting is now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA.

It was one of his last and perhaps most beautiful paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh died just one year after painting ‘Starry Night’.