Hand-painted in oil
About this Artwork
1889: the year that splits
The record dates The Starry Night to 1889. That year is the hinge of van Gogh's last stretch of work: it opens in Arles and continues, from the spring, at Saint-Rémy, where the catalogue's fourth period begins. The record gives the year and not the month, so this entry places the canvas in 1889 and goes no further. What can be said with confidence is that this is not the Arles night picture: Starry Night Over the Rhone is dated 1888 and held by the Musée d'Orsay, and the two are constantly confused.
What the record gives
The canvas measures 73.7 x 92.1 cm and is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, one of three works in this catalogue recorded in that collection; another is Corridor in the asylum, also dated 1889. The measured palette resolves to a single dominant family: blue.
The Saint-Rémy year around it
The record holds 116 painted works dated 1889, and their titles describe a narrow world: fifteen works here name Saint-Paul or a hospital and fourteen of those are dated 1889; five name an asylum, all of them 1889; twelve name olive trees and ten name wheat. This canvas belongs to that year. Beyond the date, the dimensions and the collection, this catalogue makes no claim about the circumstances in which it was made.
Sources
9 references- Vincent van Gogh — Wikipedia
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] ; 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he c
- Gogh, Vincent van — Getty ULAN
Dutch art dealer, 1866-1911
- The Starry Night — Wikidata
description: painting by Vincent van Gogh; inception: 1889-01-01; dimensions: 73.7 × 92.1 cm; collection: Museum of Modern Art
- The Starry Night — Wikipedia
The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise,
- moma.org — reference for "The Starry Night"
Authoritative source for this work (moma.org).
- doi.org — reference for "The Starry Night"
Authoritative source for this work (doi.org).
- jstor.org — reference for "The Starry Night"
Authoritative source for this work (jstor.org).
- VanGogh-starry night ballance1 — Wikimedia Commons
High-resolution image of the work, hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
- The Starry Night — Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art open data: Vincent van Gogh; Saint Rémy, June 1889; Oil on canvas
