Poster Vincent van Gogh - Starry Night, 1888

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Starry night (details), 1888
Oil on canvas H. 73,0 ; L. 92,0 cm.
Paris, musée d'Orsay - Donation subject to usufruct Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kahn-Sriber, in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Moch, 1975
© Photo GrandPalaisRmn (Musée d'Orsay) / H. Lewandowski.

From the moment...

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Starry night (details), 1888
Oil on canvas H. 73,0 ; L. 92,0 cm.
Paris, musée d'Orsay - Donation subject to usufruct Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kahn-Sriber, in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Fernand Moch, 1975
© Photo GrandPalaisRmn (Musée d'Orsay) / H. Lewandowski.

From the moment of his arrival in Arles, on 8 February 1888, Van Gogh was constantly preoccupied with the representation of "night effects". In April 1888, he wrote to his brother Theo: "I need a starry night with cypresses or maybe above a field of ripe wheat." In June, he confided to the painter Emile Bernard: "But when shall I ever paint the Starry Sky, this painting that keeps haunting me" and, in September, in a letter to his sister, he evoked the same subject: "Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day". During the same month of September, he finally realised his obsessive project.
He first painted a corner of nocturnal sky in Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles (Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Muller). Next came this view of the Rhône in which he marvellously transcribed the colours he perceived in the dark. Blues prevail: Prussian blue, ultramarine and cobalt. The city gas lights glimmer an intense orange and are reflected in the water. The stars sparkle like gemstones.

© GrandPalaisRmnCréations, Paris 2026.