Astronomers Think They Know Exact Night That Inspired Van Gogh
On a clear summer night in 1889, Vincent van Gogh gazed out of his asylum window at the bright pre-dawn sky in the South of France, and was inspired to paint what became one of his most famous masterpieces: The Starry Night.
For years, art historians have used letters that he wrote to his brother and other clues to date the painting to June 1889. But a team of astronomers from South Korea now claims that van Gogh created the painting during another starry night, about a month later.
In a new study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers argue that they have pinpointed the exact night sky that inspired van Gogh: 22 July 1889. It is not exactly a vital breakthrough to a vexing problem - and you may think they ought to have something better to do with their time - but it is an interesting analysis all the same. Their theory is, crucially, based on the idea that van Gogh ensured his painting was of the actual night sky, rather than painting stars he imagined. With this in mind, the researchers conducted a series of forensic astronomy experiments to match the celestial alignment depicted in The Starry Night with what van Gogh likely saw from Saint-Rémy during the summer of 1889.
Using astronomy software, the team recreated every night sky during June and July 1889 and compared the three-dimensional geometry of the painting’s most prominent celestial features - stars, the crescent moon and Venus - in relation to each other, while eliminating variables such as size and colour, which van Gogh may have embellished. Their conclusion is that 22 July 1889 was the date that matched all the conditions, according to the study.
Not everyone agrees. A spokesperson from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum told The Guardian that “van Gogh was not concerned with exact likenesses. The positions of the celestial bodies depicted can therefore not form a reliable basis for dating the work.”
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