How Long Did It Take To Paint Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh The Starry Nighttime Saint Rémy, June 1889

MoMA, Floor 5, 502 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

In creating this prototype of the night heaven—dominated by the bright moon at right and Venus at center left—van Gogh heralded modernistic painting'south new embrace of mood, expression, symbol, and sentiment. Inspired by the view from his window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole aviary in Saint-Rémy, in southern French republic, where the creative person 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, notwithstanding the painting, among hundreds of artworks van Gogh made that year, was created in several sessions during the day, under entirely dissimilar atmospheric conditions. The picturesque village nestled beneath the hills was based on other views—it could not be seen from his window—and the cypress at left appears much closer than information technology was. And although certain features of the sky have been reconstructed as observed, the artist altered celestial shapes and added a sense of glow.

Van Gogh assigned an emotional language to night and nature that took them far from their bodily appearances. Dominated by brilliant blues and yellows applied with gestural verve and immediacy, The Starry Night also demonstrates how inseparable van Gogh'due south vision was from the new procedures of painting he had devised, in which color and paint describe a earth exterior the artwork even as they telegraph their own condition equally, but, color and paint.

Publication extract from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)

Additional text

Vincent van Gogh produced emotional, visually arresting paintings over the course of a career that lasted only a decade. Nature, and the people living closely to it, first stirred his creative inclinations and connected to inspire him throughout his short life. But rather than faithfully depicting his surroundings, he painted landscapes altered by his imagination. Van Gogh was seeking respite from plaguing depression at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France when he painted The Starry Dark. It reflects his direct observations of his view of the countryside from his window as well as the memories and emotions this view evoked in him. The steeple of the church, for example, resembles those common in his native Netherlands, while the mountains in the background depict those in his surrounding mural.

Publication excerpt from Modern Art & Ideas on Coursera

Examine a detailed iii-D model of The Starry Night that gives you a shut-up view of the texture of the sheet and the artist'south brushstrokes from various angles.

UNIQLO ArtSpeaks: Sheldon A. Clarke on Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night

Medium: Oil on canvass
Dimensions: 29 x 36 1/four" (73.seven x 92.1 cm)
Credit: Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Heritance (by exchange). Conservation was made possible by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project
Object number: 472.1941
Department: Painting and Sculpture

We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition history.

Painting, Sculpture, Prints

May 24–October 15, 1944
The Museum Collection of Painting and Sculpture

Jun 20, 1945–February xiii, 1946

2 other works identified
The Museum Collection of Painting and Sculpture

Jun twenty, 1945–Feb thirteen, 1946

2 other works identified
Designed for Children

Jun 11–Oct 6, 1946

two other works identified
XXVth Ceremony Exhibition: Paintings from the Museum Collection

Oct 19, 1954–Feb 6, 1955

2 other works identified
Art in a Changing World: 1884–1964: Painting and Sculpture from the Museum Drove

May 27, 1964

1 other work identified
Selections from the Permanent Drove: Painting and Sculpture

May 17, 1984–Aug 4, 1992

3 other works identified
Selections from the Permanent Collection of Painting and Sculpture

Jul 1, 1993

ii other works identified
MoMA2000, ModernStarts, Places: French Landscape, The Modernist Vision, 1880-1920

October 28, 1999–Mar xiv, 2000

1 other work identified
Drove Highlights

May viii–10, 2002
To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection

Jul three, 2002–Sep vi, 2004

2 other works identified
To Be Looked At: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection

Jul 3, 2002–Sep six, 2004

6 other works identified
Painting & Sculpture II

Nov twenty, 2004–Aug five, 2015

3 other works identified
Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night

Sep 21, 2008–Jan 5, 2009
Van Gogh and the Colors of the Dark

Sep 21, 2008–Jan 5, 2009
501: 19th-Century Innovators

Autumn 2019–Autumn 2021

11 other works identified
501: 19th-Century Innovators

Fall 2019–Fall 2021

10 other works identified
517: Surrealist Objects

Ongoing

half-dozen other works identified
517: Surrealist Objects

Ongoing

4 other works identified
501: 19th-Century Innovators

Fall 2019–Fall 2021

ane other work identified
502: Lillie P. Elation

Ongoing

two other works identified
502: Lillie P. Bliss

Ongoing

iv other works identified
502: Lillie P. Bliss

Ongoing

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a projection using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

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Provenance Inquiry Project

This work is included in the Provenance Enquiry Projection, which investigates the buying history of works in MoMA's collection.

June - September 1889, Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
September 1889 - January 1891, Theo van Gogh (1857-1891), Paris, acquired from his brother Vincent van Gogh.
January 1891 - December 1900, Johanna (Jo) van Gogh-Bonger, Amsterdam, in trust for her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Amsterdam, inherited from Theo van Gogh.
Dec 1900 - Feb 1901, Julien Leclercq, Paris, purchased through Jo van Gogh-Bonger.
Feb 1901 - before July 1905, Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, Paris, acquired past substitution from Julien Leclercq.
By July 1905 - March 1906, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Amsterdam, reacquired from Claude-Emile Schuffenecker.
[Oldenzeel Gallery, Rotterdam]
1906 - 1938, Georgette P. van Stolk (1867-1963), Rotterdam, purchased from/through Oldenzeel Gallery.
1938 - 1941, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, purchased from Georgette P. van Stolk through Jacob-Baart de la Faille.
1941, The Museum of Mod Fine art, New York, acquired by exchange from Paul Rosenberg Gallery.

Provenance research is a piece of work in progress, and is ofttimes updated with new data. If yous have any questions or information to provide about the listed works, please email [email protected] or write to:

Provenance Research Project
The Museum of Modern Art
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