“The Starry Night (Over the Rhône)”
Can you find the big dipper in the starry sky?
This lovely night scene is an oil on canvas painting, titled “The Starry Night,” often referred to as “The Starry Night Over the Rhône”. It was painted by the Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh, in September of 1888. The scene is along the Rhône River at a spot just a few minutes’ walk from the yellow house that Van Gogh rented during his stay in Arles in southern France. Van Gogh had moved to Arles earlier that year with the hopes of starting an art colony. During the summer months, van Gogh repeatedly wrote to his brother, Theo, and friend, Émile Bernard, about his longing to do a night scene. He finally got to it in September.
Van Gogh was fruitful in September 1888. That month, he first painted “Café Terrace at Night”, and then this piece, “The Starry Night”, often referred to as “The Starry Night Over the Rhône” to differentiate it from the more famous painting of “The Starry Night” painted the following year and housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in the United States. This serene painting depicts the reflection of Arles on the Rhône River. Two lovers holding hands are painted at the bottom of the canvas. Two ships in the foreground stand in the water shouldering the waves.
In a letter Theo, van Gogh included a small sketch and said “Included a small sketch of a 30 square canvas – in short the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet. The sky is aquamarine, 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 down 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. Two colorful figurines of lovers in the foreground.”
This was painted along the east bank of the Rhône River just north of the city center on Chemin des Segonnaux. Today, an informational board marks the exact location where van Gogh set up his easel to paint the scene.
Van Gogh did a handful of nighttime paintings. In 1888, he was fascinated by the contrast of the yellow gas lights with the white stars in the night sky. Artificial lights were a new technology at this time which heightened the awe. Van Gogh had been disillusioned with religion and found solace in the glowing night skies of Arles. He wrote to Theo, “I have “tremendous need for, shall I say the word—for religion—so I go outside at night to paint the stars.”
Some believe the couple in the foreground to be a self-portrait of van Gogh with Madame Marie Ginoux, the wife and proprietor of the Café de la Gare in Arles. Vincent is identifiable by his signature straw hat, and Madame Ginoux with her hair and wearing the regional fashion of the Arlésiennes. Madame Ginoux’s cafe was a favorite haunt of the artist, who lived there before he moved into his famous yellow house. He painted its interior in “The Night Café” and developed a deep affection for Madame Ginoux. Interestingly, she declined all of Vincent’s attempts to paint a portrait of her, until Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles a few months later in November. The two artists each painted their own version of “l’Arlesienne” during one sitting, after Gauguin convinced Madame Ginoux to pose for her portrait.
The artist, Paul Gauguin, famously lived with van Gogh between October and December of 1888, moving in just a month after he painted this piece. It took just several months before their conflicting personalities caused the artists to separate after a violent episode in which van Gogh cut off part of his ear.
“The Starry Night (Over the Rhône)” is in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.
For more on Vincent van Gogh, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
