Astronomy: July sky may have inspired van Gogh’s The Starry Night (Scientific Reports)
23 October 2026
The night sky in Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night may have been inspired by a celestial arrangement visible before dawn on 22 July 1889, according to research published in Scientific Reports. The findings suggest that the artwork portrays an artistic observation of a waning crescent Moon, Venus, and the Hyades star cluster. The authors argue that the conventional June dating of the work should potentially be reconsidered.
Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889) is one of the world’s most famous paintings and is widely thought to depict a stylised view from his window in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. However, it has been debated whether the night sky in question was the painter’s fantasy, a symbolic representation, or a realistic astronomical observation. It is also not certain exactly when the painting was created, as previous astronomical interpretations, based on a date in mid-June 1889, have produced conflicting conclusions. For example, previous analysis indicates that the Moon would have appeared much fuller than it does in the painting during the traditional mid-June timeframe.
To address this question, Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, Ho Jin, and colleagues developed a framework combining astronomical simulations and measurements of star positions, historical weather records, and van Gogh’s letters. Based on earlier sketches of the landscape, the authors reconstructed the narrow field of view represented in The Starry Night. They found that the crescent Moon, Venus and the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus would have been visible around dawn on 22 July 1889 in a configuration that broadly corresponded to the one portrayed in the painting. Historical weather records suggest that the night sky around that date would have been clear enough to see such an astronomical arrangement. Additionally, frequent mentions of cicadas in van Gogh’s letters suggest a period of hot weather, which better matches the recorded temperatures in July 1889.
Together, this evidence suggests that van Gogh may have been inspired to paint The Starry Night in July, rather than June. However, the authors caution that this evidence cannot definitively establish a single completion date, and that observations from several nights may have been combined in the painting.
- Article
- Open access
- Published: 22 October 2026
Kim, E.Jh., Kang, S., Song, J. et al. The actual sky of Van Gogh’s Starry Night: a multidisciplinary reconstruction. Sci Rep 16, 31109 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-73025-5
© 2026 Springer Nature Limited. All Rights Reserved.
