Van Gogh Starry Night may depict the pre-dawn sky of July 22, 1889, according to a new analysis that challenges long-held assumptions about when Vincent van Gogh completed the celebrated canvas.
For decades, art historians have dated The Starry Night to June 1889, drawing on the painter’s letters from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in which he described viewing a bright “morning star” and finishing “a new study of a starry sky” in mid-June. A team of South Korean astronomers now contends the painting aligns more closely with the heavens about a month later.
In research published this week in Scientific Reports, the authors say they have identified the precise night sky that best matches the work. Lead author Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, a Seoul telescope company chief executive and astronomy doctoral candidate at Kyung Hee University, said in an email interview reported by the Associated Press that he is confident July 22 offers the strongest fit.
Van Gogh Starry Night and the sky match
The study assumes van Gogh drew closely from observation rather than imagination. Using astronomy software, the team reconstructed the night sky over Saint-Rémy for every date in June and July 1889. They compared the three-dimensional geometry of the painting’s key celestial elements, including the crescent moon, Venus, and nearby star clusters, while setting aside variables such as size and color that the artist could have stylized.
The analysis points to the Hyades, a V-shaped cluster in Taurus, as the best match for the star arrangement in the painting. That conclusion contradicts earlier proposals favoring Aries as the dominant constellation. At dawn, when van Gogh was known to work, Aries’ stars would have been too faint to inspire, Kim told Scientific American.
According to the paper, July 22 satisfied all conditions: a crescent moon above Venus, the Hyades fitting the visible frame, and clear-enough weather for star visibility. The authors propose van Gogh conceived the idea in June but completed the painting after July 22, as Kim told Space.com.
Debate over dating and artistic intent
Not all experts agree with the new timeline. A spokesperson for Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum said the artist did not pursue exact likeness, so celestial positions are not a reliable basis for dating. The museum also notes van Gogh suffered a serious breakdown around July 22 that left him unable to paint for about a month.
Jose Luis Aragon, a physicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who has studied van Gogh’s works, told the AP the July date is an intriguing hypothesis rather than a settled conclusion. He found the broader takeaway persuasive: the painting is not pure fantasy, and van Gogh observed the real sky closely.
Another starry scene
Van Gogh painted a more tranquil nocturne, Starry Night Over the Rhône, in 1888, a year before creating The Starry Night at Saint-Rémy. For more on how contemporary artists engage with nocturnal scenes and celestial motifs, see our coverage in Diaries of a Primitive Man: A Week in Art and Ideas.