The Starry Night

Starry Night is one of the most recognized pieces of art in the world.

The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. Since 1941, the work has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. As one of Western art's most famous paintings, The Starry Night is widely regarded as Van Gogh's magnum opus.

Van Gogh depicted the view at different times of the day and under various weather conditions, such as the sunrise, moonrise, sunshine-filled days, overcast days, windy days, and one day with rain. The hospital staff did not permit Van Gogh to paint in his bedroom, but he was able to make sketches in ink or charcoal on paper there; he then based newer variations on previous ones. Each of these paintings is united by a diagonal line depicting the low rolling hills of the Alpilles mountains coming in from the right. Across fifteen of the twenty-one versions, cypress trees can be seen beyond the far wall enclosing the wheat field.