How to Read “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh

Exploring Van Gogh’s nocturnal masterpiece

Christopher P Jones is the author of How to Read Paintings, an introduction to some of the most fascinating artworks in art history.

The Starry Night (June 1889) by Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas. 73 × 92 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S. Image source Wikimedia Commons

We often experience the night sky as countless pinpricks of light set against an impossibly dark and silent black — such is the way a starry night…