Event of 1889: Vincent van Gogh paints The Starry Night at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Background. Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum on 8 May 1889, following a mental breakdown and self-mutilation in late December 1888. The former monastery functioned as a mental asylum. During this period, he produced notable works including Irises in May 1889. The Starry Night was created in mid-June 1889, inspired by the view from his bedroom window facing east.

Creation. Painted in June 1889, the work depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. Researchers determined that Venus was visible at dawn in Provence in spring 1889. Van Gogh described the landscape in a letter to his sister Wil on 16 June 1889. The view was one he painted variations of no fewer than twenty-one times.

Reception. Van Gogh initially considered the painting a failure, referring to it as such in a letter to Émile Bernard in late November 1889. He sent the painting to his brother Theo in Paris on 28 September 1889, listing it as a 'night study' among works he did not consider 'a little good.' Theo responded in October 1889, noting the search for style in the village in the moonlight.