Instantly recognizable for its unique style, the Starry Night was painted by Vincent van Gogh while he was in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, an asylum and a clinic for the mentally ill near the village of Saint-Rémy, for his erratic behaviour. Widely regarded as one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary hillside village. Painted in late June or early July of 1889, it marked the beginning of the depression that would plague him until the end of his life.

After his short-lived collaboration with Paul Gauguin abruptly ended in Arles in 1888, following his infamous breakdown during which he mutilated part of his ear, Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, where he was allowed more freedoms than any of the other patients. He had the freedom to walk beyond the hospital grounds, if attended. But he rarely ventured more than a few hundred yards from the asylum’s walls.

He was encouraged to paint and in addition to his second-storey bedroom, a ground-floor room was also allotted to him for his studio. When it seemed his mental health was recovering, he began to suffer hallucination and plunged into depression again. This was reflected in the tonal shift in his work as he returned to his earlier way of incorporating the darker colours. Starry Night is a wonderful example of that shift.

The canvas containing the Starry Night is dominated by a night sky that seems to be in a state of turbulence magnified with chromatic blue swirls, a glowing yellow crescent moon and the stars, surrounded by concentric circles of radiant white and yellow light. Beneath the turbulent sky sits in the distance a hushed village of humble cottages surrounding a church, whose steeple rises sharply against the rolling blue-black hills in the background. The lighted cottages set against the turbulent sky seem to create a calm corner, signifying the welcoming lights of peaceful homes.

A flame-like cypress tree, commonly associated as the trees of the graveyard and mourning, sits in the foreground and almost to the top edge of the canvas. It seems to be serving as a bridge between life and death, represented by the earth below and the sky above, commonly associated with heaven.

Widely regarded as the magnum opus of Vincent van Gogh, the Starry Night is a testament to how its beauty is timeless and universal. It evidences Van Gogh’s extended observation of the night sky. The most interesting point about the painting is the fact that it came entirely from Van Gogh’s imagination. As often wrongly said and believed, none of the scenery matches the area surrounding the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole or the view from his window. As a man who religiously paints what he sees, it is a remarkable break from Van Gogh’s normal work.

Acquired through the Lizzie Plummer Bliss, known as Lillie P Bliss, an American art collector and patron, the Starry Night has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941.