Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night, 1889
Oil on canvas

Painted during Van Gogh's voluntary stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, The Starry Night depicts a turbulent night sky above a quiet village rendered with swirling, almost violent brushwork. The cypress tree in the foreground — a traditional symbol of mourning in European culture — connects earth and sky in a single vertical surge. Though Van Gogh himself expressed ambivalence about the painting, it has since become one of the most recognizable works in Western art history.

about the artist

Vincent van Gogh produced over 2,000 artworks in the decade before his death in 1890, despite receiving almost no recognition during his lifetime. Born in the Netherlands in 1853, he worked through Post-Impressionism to develop a style of extraordinary emotional intensity, defined by dense impasto, vivid color contrasts, and restless, expressive mark-making. His letters to his brother Theo — thousands of them — remain one of the most intimate documents of an artist's inner life ever published.