Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh embraced the mood, expression, symbolism, and sentiment of modern artists in his art, including Starry Night.
Aware that he had a mental illness, van Gogh had himself committed to an asylum in Saint-Rémy, in the south of France. Here, van Gogh spent a year between 1889-90, all the while inspired by the view from his window.
Starry Night was painted in June of 1889. Like other works completed in the year he spent here, this oil-on-canvas painting was created in several sessions during the day.
What’s most interesting about van Gogh’s Starry Night though, is that the image of the sky was remembered from the night before and painted from memory the next day. However, it is said that van Gogh could not see a village from his window and that the cypress in the painting appears much closer than it was.
See more works by Vincent van Gogh here.
