Study links van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ to predawn sky on July 22, 1889

A team led by South Korean astronomer Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim has proposed that Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” depicts the sky over Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, shortly before dawn on July 22, 1889. The findings were reported October 22 in *Scientific Reports*.

The researchers identified five prominent painted stars as members of the Hyades star cluster in Taurus, rather than the constellation Aries suggested by an earlier analysis. They used Procrustes shape analysis, a statistical method for comparing arrangements of points, to evaluate the match. Their reconstruction also identified a waning crescent moon and Venus in positions consistent with the painting.

The proposed date differs from the conventional art-historical timeline. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo on or about June 18, 1889, that he had completed “a new study of a starry sky,” and historians have generally treated that letter as evidence that the painting was made in mid-June. Van Gogh had entered a hospital in Saint-Rémy about a month earlier, and the scene is thought to reflect the view from his room.

Kim’s team also examined documents concerning van Gogh’s circumstances in July, along with meteorological and ecological evidence. The researchers argue that the close astronomical correspondence shows the painting combined direct observation with artistic invention. Their analysis offers a new proposed date for the depicted sky, but does not resolve when van Gogh completed the canvas.