The Starry Night is a painting by Vincent van Gogh, made in June 1889 while he was a voluntary patient at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in southern France. The scene was inspired by the view from his east-facing window, but the village and church are partly imagined, and he painted it from memory in the daytime. The sky, with a crescent moon, glowing stars and a great swirl of wind-like forms, is painted in thick, rhythmic brush strokes, with a dark cypress in the foreground. Van Gogh himself regarded it as a failure, but it is now among the most famous paintings in the world. It has been in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941.
Before and after
- 26 September 1888Birth of T. S. Eliot
- 7 November 1888Birth of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
- 1889Construction of Moulin Rouge
- 1889Founding of Interparliamentary Union
- 1889The Starry Night
- 30 January 1889Mayerling Incident
- 31 March 1889Construction of Eiffel Tower
- 1 April 1889Origins of Osaka
- 7 April 1889Birth of Gabriela Mistral
More in Art, literature & culture
- 10 August 1793Construction of Louvre Museum
- from 18th century to 19th centuryRomanticism
- 1 November 1800Construction of White House
- 1886Statue of Liberty
- c. 1900sRise of modernism
- 1907Rise of cubism
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.