50 Fun Facts About The Starry Night

In which year did Van Gogh paint The Starry Night?

He wrote to Paris around 18 June to say he had a new study of a starry sky.

Where has The Starry Night hung since 1941?

It came through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest and is rarely loaned out.

The Starry Night shows the view from Van Gogh's room in what kind of institution?

Saint-Paul-de-Mausole occupied a former monastery near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

On what date did Van Gogh voluntarily admit himself to the asylum?

It followed the December breakdown in which he mutilated his own left ear.

Which direction did the asylum window in the painting face?

That is why the light before sunrise and the morning star appear; the sun rose over the enclosed wheat field.

Why did the asylum let Van Gogh have both a bedroom and a separate studio?

The institution catered to the wealthy, so a second-floor bedroom and a ground-floor studio were both free.

Where was The Starry Night actually painted?

Staff would not let him paint in his bedroom, so he sketched there and worked from the studies downstairs.

How many times did Van Gogh paint variations of the view from that window?

He showed it at sunrise, moonrise, in sunshine, cloud, wind and once in rain; The Starry Night is the only nocturne.

The brightest 'star' in the painting, just right of the cypress, is which planet?

Astronomers confirmed the morning star was visible at dawn in Provence in spring 1889 and nearly as bright as it gets.

What was the actual phase of the moon when Van Gogh painted his crescent?

One historian thinks he began with a gibbous moon and reverted to a crescent, leaving the bright aureole behind.

Which element of the painting could not be seen from Van Gogh's window?

It came from a sketch made on a hillside above Saint-Rémy, and its steeple looks more Dutch than Provençal.

Which mountains form the diagonal line of low hills across the paintings of the view?

The line coming in from the right unites all twenty-one versions of the scene.

How did Van Gogh describe The Starry Night in a letter to Émile Bernard in late 1889?

He said he had let himself be led astray into 'reaching for stars that are too big'.

What did Van Gogh call the painting when listing works to send Theo in September 1889?

He then held it back with two others to save on postage; it went to Paris on 28 September.

Which painter had lived with Van Gogh in Arles and argued for painting from imagination?

Van Gogh preferred painting from nature and blamed 'abstraction' for leading him astray in the sky's swirls.

How did Theo describe The Starry Night in a letter of October 1889?

He worried that his brother's 'search for style takes away the real sentiment of things'.

Which was the first painting in Van Gogh's series of nocturnes, done in Arles in 1888?

It was followed later the same September by Starry Night Over the Rhône.

Which Paris museum holds Starry Night Over the Rhône, painted in Arles in 1888?

It was first shown at the 1889 Salon des Indépendants, painted a short walk from the Yellow House.

Which Netherlands museum holds the 1888 Place du Forum nocturne Café Terrace at Night?

The café on the Place du Forum was refurbished in 1990-91 to look like the painting.

Soon after reaching Arles, Van Gogh wrote that he needed 'a starry night with' what?

Or, he added, perhaps a starry night above a field of ripe wheat.

Van Gogh compared the stars to dots on a map and said we take what 'to reach a star'?

Just as one takes a train to travel on Earth, he wrote; he retained a belief in an afterlife despite rejecting religion.

Which book of the Bible did Meyer Schapiro link to the painting's hidden content?

He saw the apocalyptic woman girded with sun and moon and crowned with stars; Loevgren preferred Joseph's dream in Genesis.

Which constellation did Albert Boime identify in the sky of The Starry Night?

Harvard astronomer Charles Whitney agreed about the morning star but was less sure about the constellation.

Boime suggested the swirl in the sky represents what, seen in popular astronomy books?

Camille Flammarion's publications reproduced drawings of 'spiral nebulae' by Lord Rosse.

Charles Whitney suggested the swirls could represent which local wind?

The wind triggered Van Gogh's first breakdown in the asylum, less than a month after the painting.

Cypress trees are traditionally associated with what in Mediterranean culture?

Van Gogh's letters suggest he cared more about the trees' bottle-green form than any symbolism.

Which two pigments were used for the sky of The Starry Night?

Scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology and MoMA analysed the paint.

Which rare pigment did Van Gogh use for the stars and moon?

It was combined with zinc yellow.

Who inherited The Starry Night when the painter died in 1890?

Theo died less than six months later, and his widow Jo became caretaker of the whole legacy.

To whom did Jo van Gogh-Bonger sell The Starry Night in Paris in 1900?

Leclercq sold it to Gauguin's friend Schuffenecker in 1901, and Jo later bought it back.

In which city was The Starry Night kept by Georgette van Stolk from 1906 to 1938?

Jo had sold it to the city's Oldenzeel Gallery in 1906.

Which dealer sold The Starry Night to MoMA after fleeing Nazi-occupied France?

He fled to the United States in 1940 and completed the deal in 1941.

According to MoMA's director, what did the museum exchange for The Starry Night in 1941?

Glenn Lowry described the swap on The Economics of Everyday Things podcast.

Lillie P. Bliss, whose bequest funded the acquisition, helped found what in 1929?

The Boston-born collector was the daughter of a textile merchant.

Which other famous work did Van Gogh paint at the asylum in May 1889?

It is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum; a blue self-portrait followed in September 1889.

Which illness did biographers Naifeh and Smith attribute to Van Gogh?

They describe it as a 'seizing up of the mind' rather than the falling sickness of antiquity.

Van Gogh's second breakdown in seven months came in which month of 1889?

It struck less than a month after he finished The Starry Night.

Which painting, made at the same time, is often regarded as a pendant to The Starry Night?

Schapiro claimed to see a mother and child in its clouds.

What is the title of Don McLean's 1971 tribute song to Van Gogh that references the painting?

McLean wrote the lyrics in 1970 after reading a Van Gogh biography, working from a print of the painting.

On what did Don McLean write the lyrics of his Van Gogh song?

He wanted to argue that Van Gogh was not crazy but ill.

On which 1971 Don McLean album did the Van Gogh tribute appear?

The song topped the UK singles chart for two weeks in 1972 and reached No. 12 in the US.

Which French composer's 1978 orchestral work Timbres, espace, mouvement was inspired by the painting?

The piece is listed among the painting's cultural echoes alongside McLean's song.

Which phrase describing The Starry Night has become a standard label for it?

It is regarded as one of the most recognisable paintings in the Western canon.

How many months did Van Gogh spend in Provence in total?

Arles from February 1888, then the asylum at Saint-Rémy from May 1889 to May 1890.

In how many of the 21 window views did Van Gogh exaggerate the size of the trees?

Most notably in Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night, bringing the trees close to the picture plane.

Whose use of Prussian blue and citron yellow for Christ did Lauren Soth link to the painting?

Soth argued Van Gogh used the same colours to smuggle a religious subject into the painting.

Which museum bought Van Gogh's Irises, painted at the asylum in May 1889, in 1990?

The Getty acquired it in 1990 from Australian businessman Alan Bond, who had bought it at auction in 1987; the blue self-portrait from September 1889 went to the Musée d'Orsay instead.

Which popular astronomer's illustrated books does Albert Boime think inspired the painting's swirl?

Van Gogh never mentions him in his letters, but the books carried drawings of spiral nebulae seen through telescopes.

Which old friend of Gauguin bought The Starry Night from Julien Leclercq in 1901?

Jo van Gogh-Bonger later bought it back from him before selling it to a Rotterdam gallery in 1906.

Which school's scientists joined MoMA in analysing the painting's pigments?

They found the stars and moon mix rare Indian yellow with zinc yellow.