Scientists try to refine the date of van Gogh's "The Starry Night" by matching it to the 1889 sky
A South Korean research team says Vincent van Gogh's painting "The Starry Night" matches a real predawn sky around July 22, 1889, rather than June. The study appeared in Scientific Reports, though another physicist calls the July date an intriguing hypothesis, not a settled answer.
A team of South Korean scientists reports that "The Starry Night," the famous painting by Dutch postimpressionist Vincent van Gogh, may have been created later than long believed. Using forensic astronomy and historical research, they matched the painted scene to the predawn sky above Saint-Remy de Provence in France around July 22, 1889. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports and, if the conclusion holds, it would shift the dating of one of the world's best-known artworks.
What changes
Art historians have generally placed the painting in June 1889, soon after van Gogh entered an asylum. Several months earlier he had cut off his left ear during an argument with painter Paul Gauguin. The new date would be about a month later. The painting shows a crescent moon, Venus, a sky of swirling stars, a village and cypress trees.
The team is led by Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, CEO of a Seoul telescope maker and a doctoral candidate at Kyung Hee University. He says the sky most similar to the painting occurred around July 22, though the days just before and after could also have inspired it. Kim said he is confident in the date.
The evidence
According to the researchers, the shape of the moon before dawn on that date matched the painting, while the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus rose in the east alongside Venus. Weather analysis suggests the sky was clear enough to see it all. Kim visited France in 2019, in mid-June and around July 22, and saw brilliant stars in the July predawn sky that were absent in June.
He also argues that van Gogh's seizure happened later in July than assumed, based on letters between the painter and one of his brothers. Some letters mention cicadas, which Kim says points to a hotter July.
Independent view
Jose Luis Aragon, a physicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who was not involved, calls the work careful and genuinely interdisciplinary. He notes that the moon in mid-June 1889 was not the thin crescent in the painting. Still, he regards July as an intriguing hypothesis, since van Gogh painted in a studio from sketches and memory, so the sky is probably a composite of many nights. He finds the broader message most convincing: the painting is not pure fantasy.
