Van Gogh didn't invent it? The discovery that's shaking the art world

A new study from Kyung Hee University in South Korea suggests a match between the sky in Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and the actual sky above Saint-Rémy on July 22, 1889. The research also challenges the accepted date of the painting's creation, proposing it was completed in July rather than June 1889.

A new study from Kyung Hee University in South Korea raises the possibility that the sky in Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" was not born solely from his imagination, but is based on a real sky view. The researchers used astronomical simulations to reconstruct the appearance of the sky above the town of Saint-Rémy in southern France, where van Gogh was staying at a psychiatric institution while creating the painting. They found a match between the position of the moon, the planet Venus, and the Hyades star cluster and the appearance of the sky in the early morning of July 22, 1889. The study also challenges the accepted date of the painting's creation, which was estimated to have been completed in June 1889, and suggests it may have been completed only in July. To strengthen their conclusions, the researchers examined letters van Gogh sent to his brother Theo, in which he described the sound of cicadas, and historical weather data indicating clear nights. However, the researchers emphasize that the findings do not prove that van Gogh painted the sky exactly as he saw it.