Vincent van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in 1889. His view from a hospital room in southern France helped him create it. Many art historians date the painting to June. They point to a letter to his brother Theo. In the letter, Van Gogh mentioned a new picture of a starry sky.
Now, a team from South Korea offers a different idea. Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim led the study. The team used computers to show the sky in 1889. They compared it with the painting. The stars, Moon, and Venus fit best with the sky before sunrise around July 22. Five stars near the center look like the Hyades, a group of stars. The team says Van Gogh may have started in June and worked on it in July.
But astronomer Donald Olson questions the idea. He says the team used too small a view of the sky and land. The researchers also say their work cannot show the exact day Van Gogh finished. He may have used views from several days.
