Starry Night over the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhône is an oil on canvas (28-1/2x36-1/4 inches) that is housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that despite his rejection of conventional religion, he felt the need for an affirmation of faith, which prompted him to "go out at night into the open and paint the stars." In his first "starry night," he evoked evening's darkness with deep shades of blue, violet, and green, broken by the illumination of the stars with their citron-yellow auras and the lamps on the dock in the distance casting pale yellow reflections across the water.

Keep reading to learn about van Gogh's still-life painting Study for "Romans Parisiens."

To learn more about art, famous artists, and art history, check out:

• How Art Works
• Impressionism
• Michelangelo
• Claude Monet