Van Gogh painted “Starry Night” from memory during the day.
Widely hailed as Van Gogh’s magnum opus, this Vincent van Gogh night stars painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day.
Starry Night depicts a dreamy interpretation of the artist’s asylum room’s sweeping view of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Though Van Gogh revisited this scene in his work on several occasions, “Starry Night” is the only nocturnal study of the view. Thus, in addition to descriptions evident in the myriad of letters he wrote to his brother, Theo, it offers a rare nighttime glimpse into what the artist saw while in isolation. “Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure,” he wrote in May of 1889, “above which in the morning I see the sunrise in its glory.”