Scientists believe they have calculated the exact night Van Gogh painted The Starry Night, but not everyone agrees on the date of July 22, 1889.
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- Scientists say they’ve come out with Van Gogh’s Starry Night
- A study says that the painting was made on July 22, 1889.
- Researchers used AI and CAD tools to help find an answer.
The starry night by Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous paintings in the world and it is generally believed that the artist completed the work in June 1889, shortly before suffering a serious mental breakdown. But a new scientific study has attempted to see if technology can find the exact date the masterpiece was made, and has come to a quite different conclusion to previous experts.
Research published in the journal Scientific Reports argues that not only was the painting based on a real night sky and not on Van Gogh’s imagination, but that July 22, 1889 is the most likely candidate for the date of the composition. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, and not everyone is happy with that verdict.
The study’s authors reached that conclusion by first identifying the likely location where Van Gogh stood to paint the scene, and concluded that he used a narrow field of view when selecting which stars to depict. Using CAD tools and historical astronomical data, they then compared the positions of the stars in the painting to those of each night at that location in June and July 1889, with the dates of June 23, July 22, and July 23 being the most consistent. Of these, July 22 stood out, with the moon, Venus and the Hyades star cluster closely aligned with the artwork.
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This was supported by contemporary documentary records, such as letters Van Gogh sent to his friends and family describing the conditions of the time. AI also played a role, and the report notes that the authors used the technology for “language editing, independent cross-checking of numerical results, and assistance in preparing deposited analysis code.”
In the end, the study’s authors concluded that the best evidence pointed toward July 22. This “shifts the burden of proof”, they argued, and those who maintain that the artwork emerged from Van Gogh’s imagination now need to explain why it matches a real night sky from the time it was known to be active.
Doubts arise
Not everyone agreed with the study’s conclusions. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was quoted in The Guardian as reaffirming that the painting was done in June 1889 and that “Van Gogh was not concerned with exact resemblances. Therefore, the positions of the celestial bodies depicted cannot form a reliable basis for dating the work.”
The Guardian also quoted Donald Olson, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Texas State University, who said that “the narrow field of view assumed by the authors, essential to their theory that the stars of the Hyades fill most of the canvas, is inconsistent with the much wider field of view required to encompass the round hills and cliffs of Starry Night.”
I also can’t help but feel that, whether accurate or not, this scientific study misses the point of paintings like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The purpose of art is to make you feel something on an emotional level, and scientific accuracy is often much less important than emotional impact. By trying to pin down the exact date the painting was made, you run the risk of missing the forest for the trees and ignoring the message the artist was trying to convey.
Still, if you’re interested in knowing exactly when Van Gogh may have put his painting on the canvas to make The Starry Night, the study is a fun attempt to draw a conclusion that isn’t based solely on educated guesses. Hopefully you can still enjoy the painting on its own merits, whether or not you agree with the researchers’ conclusions.
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