Object Image

The Starry Night

In creating this image of the night sky—dominated by the bright moon at right and Venus at center left—van Gogh heralded modern painting’s new embrace of mood, expression, symbol, and sentiment. Inspired by the view from his window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, in southern France, where the artist spent twelve months in 1889–90 seeking reprieve from his mental illnesses, The Starry Night (made in mid-June) is both an exercise in observation and a clear departure from it. The vision took place at night, yet the painting, among hundreds of artworks van Gogh made that year, was created in several sessions during the day, under entirely different atmospheric conditions. The pic...
Saint Rémy, June 1889
Oil on canvas
73.7 x 92.1cm
472.1941
Image and text © MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Museum of Modern Art
Permanent collection