Van Gogh painted Starry Night while he was staying at the Saint-Paul-de- Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the scene draws on what he could observe from his room as well as his imagination. He created it during a period of intense creativity that followed a mental health crisis, and he often painted from memory or direct observation when access to outdoor sites was limited. Key factors behind the painting

• Context and setting: The work was produced in June 1889 during Van Gogh’s year-long stay at a asylum, where he had a restricted view from his window. The scene includes a bright, swirling night sky, cypress trees, and a small village that Van Gogh imagined rather than observed directly, reflecting a synthesis of memory and invention. This situational context is frequently cited by scholars as central to the painting’s conception.

• Artistic approach: The Starry Night is noted for its expressive, post-impressionist style—thick impasto, vivid color contrasts, and dynamic, swirling forms. Van Gogh sought to convey the sensation of night and atmosphere more than a photographic likeness, emphasizing emotion and mood over precise realism.

• Personal significance: The painting emerges from Van Gogh’s broader exploration of night scenes and light, including his belief that night could be more colorful than day. He described night as a subject full of color and life in letters to his brother Theo and others, which informs the interpretive reading of Starry Night as an attempt to depict the inner, perceptual experience of the world at night.

What the painting depicts and its reception

• Composition and imagery: The canvas presents a nocturnal village under a luminous, swirling sky populated by stars and a crescent moon, with a prominent cypress tree that connects the earth to the heavens. This composition has become iconic, often celebrated for its motion, energy, and symbolic resonance.

• Historical reception: Starry Night has become one of the most recognizable works in Western art, frequently described as a touchstone of modern art and a hallmark of Van Gogh’s legacy. It is widely discussed in art history as a culmination of his personal style and thematic concerns during the Saint-Rémy period.

If you’d like, I can pull in more detailed sources about Van Gogh’s letters from that time or compare Starry Night to his other nighttime works to highlight how his approach evolved.