News The researchers identified discrepancies between the celestial alignments in June 1889 and Vincent van Gogh’s painted night sky.

October 23, 2026 — 2 min read

Visitors taking a photo of Vincent Van Gogh's ''The Starry Night" (1889) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in November 2023 (photo Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Scholars have long accepted June 1889 as the month when Vincent van Gogh painted the iconic blue eddied-sky and idyllic hillside village of "The Starry Night." Yet a new Scientific Reports study published Thursday, October 22, calls for reconsidering that date, suggesting the Post-Impressionist painter may have drawn inspiration from a night sky that appeared a month later.

South Korean researchers Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, Suna Kang, Jungwoo Song, and Ho Jin argue that several celestial forms in the painting contradict the original June 1889 date and are better supported by the conditions of July that same year.…