Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh
“Starry Night Over the Rhône” is one of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings. The painting of Arles at night time was painted from the quay on the east side of the Rhône River.
This spot was only a two-minute walk from the Yellow House, which Van Gogh was renting at the time.
Van Gogh described this painting in a letter to his brother Theo:
“…. in short the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet.
The sky is aquamarine, and the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve.
The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow, and the reflections are russet gold descending to green-bronze.
On the aquamarine field of the sky, the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink,
whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas.”
The blue colors dominate, and the city gas lights glimmer with an intense orange that is reflected in the water, and the stars sparkle like gemstones.
The light in the night sky fired Van Gogh’s imagination and resulted in some of his most famous paintings, including:
“Cafe Terrace at Night” at the Kröller-Müller Museum
“The Starry Night” at the Museum of Modern Art. NY
Before any of these paintings were painted, Van Gogh wrote to his sister:
“Often, it seems to me, the night is even more richly colored than a day.”
Van Gogh painted “Cafe Terrace at Night” first, in which the night sky was not the dominant feature, then with “Starry Night Over the Rhône,” the night sky became more dominant.
A few months later, Van Gogh was confined to a mental institution, where he painted “The Starry Night,” in which his distress was expressed in trees shaped like flames and the night sky and stars swirling in glorious colors.
Throughout these three paintings, the night sky had become the dominant feature.
Before his troubles, Van Gogh was pleased with his “Starry Night over the Rhone” painting, as he mentioned it admiringly several times in letters to his brother Theo and he made copies of it in a letter sketch as well as in a drawing.
We can easily visualize Van Gogh smiling as he reflected on his Rhône painting, which is akin to fireworks in a blue night sky.
with your choice of NAME here
Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Title: Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Artist: Vincent van Gogh
- Year: 1888
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions 72.5 cm × 92 cm (28.5 in × 36.2 in)
- Museum: Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh
The unexpected math behind Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”
Vincent van Gogh
- Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
- Born: 1853 – Zundert, Netherlands
- Died: 1890 (aged 37) – Auvers-Sur-Oise, France
- Resting place: Cimetière d’Auvers-Sur-Oise, Auvers-Sur-Oise, France
- Nationality: Dutch
- Movement: Post-Impressionism
- Notable works:
- Starry Night
- Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Sunflowers
- Irises (Getty Museum)
- Self Portrait, dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin
- White House at Night
- The Night Café
- Self-Portrait as a Painter
- Self Portrait with Felt Hat
- Green Wheat Field with Cypress
- The Raising of Lazarus
- Self-Portrait’ Mutilated Ear
- Café Terrace at Night
- Tarascon Stagecoach
- Wheatfield with Crows
- Bedroom in Arles
- Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
- Vase with Red Poppies
- Memory of the Garden at Etten
- Great Peacock Moth
- Farmhouse in Provence
- Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
- Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries
- Seascape at Saintes-Maries
- Girl in White
- Young Peasant Woman with Straw Hat Sitting in the Wheat
- Van Gogh’s Chair
- Gauguin’s Chair
- Road with Cypress and Star
- Almond Blossoms
- The Church at Auvers
- The Yellow House
- Portrait of Père Tanguy
- Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey
Why “Starry Night” Wasn’t The First “Starry Night” — Vincent Van Gogh
A Virtual Tour of the Musée d’Orsay
- “The Starry Night Over the Rhône” by Vincent van Gogh
- “A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur” by Claude Monet
- “The Basin at Argenteuil” by Claude Monet
- “Farmyard in Normandy” by Claude Monet
- “Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- “Olympia” by Édouard Manet
- “Whistler’s Mother” by James McNeill Whistler
- “The Quai Saint-Michel and Notre-Dame” by Maximilien Luce
- The Balcony by Édouard Manet
- Country Dance by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- The Cock Fight by Jean-Léon Gérôme
- “London, Houses of Parliament. The Sun Shining through the Fog” by Claude Monet
- “La Gare Saint-Lazare” by Claude Monet
- “The Seine and Notre-Dame in Paris” by Johan Jongkind
- “Blue Water Lilies” by Claude Monet
- “The Circus” by Georges Seurat
- Dancers by Pierre Bonnard
- “The Ball” by James Tissot
- “Rosebushes under the Trees” by Gustav Klimt
- The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet
- “Summer Night” by Winslow Homer
- “And the Gold of their Bodies” by Paul Gauguin
- “The Snake Charmer” by Henri Rousseau
- “Two Sisters” by James Tissot
- “Bedroom in Arles” by Vincent van Gogh
- “The Church at Auvers” by Vincent van Gogh
- “The Bed” (Le lit) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Starry Night Over The Rhone by Vincent van Gogh, Musée d’Orsay, Paris – Analysis – PODCAST
~~~
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
-Vincent van Gogh
~~~
Photo Credit: 1) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 2) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 3) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons