Vincent van Gogh
1853 to 1890
Dutch painter of The Starry Night
Artists
Vincent van Gogh painted for only about ten years and made some 2,100 works, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. He sold very little, suffered long periods of mental illness, and died by suicide at thirty seven in 1890. His bold color and restless brushwork helped lay the foundations of modern art.
He painted The Starry Night in June 1889 from the window of his room in the asylum at Saint-Rémy in the south of France, adding a village that was not there. It has belonged to the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941, and the museum rarely lends it. Find it in the fifth floor collection galleries, and go right at opening, before the crowd in front of it is several people deep. Yale's art gallery has his The Night Café, and it is free.
This story has not been written in your language yet, so it is shown in English.
Known for
- The Starry Night1889
- The Night Café1888
- Cypresses1889
Where to meet them
New Haven
- Yale University Art GalleryStop 5, Yale, from the Old Campus to the libraries
Princeton, New Jersey
- Princeton University Art MuseumStop 9, Princeton, Nassau Hall to the Chapel
New York
- Museum of Modern ArtStop 7, New York, Midtown from the Empire State to Central Park
- The Starry NightUniversal Gallery, Museum of Modern Art
- CypressesUniversal Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Essen
- Museum FolkwangDestination Book
Sources
The work
The Starry Night
Painted from memory at the Saint Remy asylum; the village is invented, the hills and the star are real.
Read about it in the Universal Gallery →See it on the tour: New York, Midtown from the Empire State to Central Park →
Cypresses
The same summer as The Starry Night; the tree he moved into that picture stands here on its own.
Read about it in the Universal Gallery →See it on our guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art →
The Night Cafe
An all night cafe in Arles in sour green and red, a room where, he wrote, a man could ruin himself.
Find it in the Universal Gallery →See it on the tour: Yale, from the Old Campus to the libraries →
Sunflowers
One of the repetitions he made of his Arles sunflowers.
Find it in the Universal Gallery →See it on the tour: Philadelphia, Independence Hall to the Art Museum →
The Bedroom
His room in the Yellow House at Arles, painted again from Saint Remy; this is the second of three versions.
Read about it in the Universal Gallery →See it on the tour: Chicago, the lakefront to Navy Pier →
The Potato Eaters
His first major work, a peasant family at supper under one lamp, before Paris changed his palette.
Find it in the Universal Gallery →
In the Universal Gallery
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Open in the Universal Gallery →
Wheat Field
Open in the Universal Gallery →