Van Gogh’s sky matches July 22 1889, researchers find

Researchers from South Korea’s SLLAB and Kyung Hee University, led by telescope engineer Elijah Jeong‑hyun Kim, showed that the stars, the crescent moon and the planet Venus in Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 masterpiece line up with the sky observed on the morning of July 22 1889 from Saint‑Paul‑de‑Mausole, the asylum where he painted the work.

Key celestial features

The painting portrays a waning crescent moon, a bright Venus above a V‑shaped cluster of stars that matches the Hyades in Taurus, and a surrounding swirl of glowing points that the researchers identified as the same celestial objects seen in the July night; the match was quantified with a mathematical method called Procrustes analysis.

Using the asylum’s exact latitude, the team reconstructed the narrow 18‑degree view that van Gogh could see from his window, compared star positions from the painting with simulated skies, and found the July 22 configuration fits the painted arrangement both in orientation and in relative spacing.

This July date challenges the long‑held belief that the painting was finished in June; letters from van Gogh to his brother Theo in late May and early June mention a “morning star,” and his illness timeline suggests he may not have been able to observe the July sky, raising questions about when he actually completed the canvas.

Other constellations could fit the painted pattern mathematically, but only the Hyades satisfied the combined constraints of position, orientation, moon illumination, and Venus’s placement; historical weather records indicate clear skies on July 22, supporting the likelihood that van Gogh could have seen the same view.