Van Gogh’s Starry Night: Asylum Window, Kolmogorov Turbulence, 900 Paintings One Sale

May 29, 2026

Van Gogh Starry Night complete guide DeckArts Berlin

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

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The Starry Night (1889) by Van Gogh: painted from the barred window of the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in June 1889. The turbulent swirling sky confirmed by Kolmogorov’s mathematical theory of turbulence in 2006. 74×92 cm, MoMA New York. DeckArts Starry Night triptych from ~$310. On navy under 2700K.

The Starry Night (June 1889) by Vincent van Gogh was painted from the window of the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh had voluntarily committed himself in May 1889, one month before painting it. The turbulent swirling pattern of the sky — the most reproduced visual in Post-Impressionist art — was confirmed by physicists at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 2006 to obey Kolmogorov’s mathematical equations for fluid turbulence, which describe the statistical properties of turbulent flow. Van Gogh had no knowledge of Kolmogorov’s work (Kolmogorov published in 1941, 52 years after the painting). At MoMA New York. DeckArts triptych from ~$310.

Twelve Specific Facts About the Starry Night

1. Date: June 1889. Van Gogh painted it during the one-year voluntary stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (May 1889–May 1890).

2. Size: 73.7 × 92.1 cm. Oil on canvas. At MoMA New York since 1941.

3. The window: Van Gogh’s room in the asylum faced east. He described the view in his letters to Theo: a wheat field in the foreground, cypress trees, the village of Saint-Rémy in the middle distance, and the hills beyond. The barred window is documented in his descriptions and in his other paintings from the same period (The Wheat Field, The Reaper).

4. The cypress: The dominant vertical in the composition is the cypress tree in the left foreground — taller than all the buildings in the village below it. Van Gogh called cypress trees “as beautiful as an Egyptian obelisk” in a letter to his brother Theo. They were a recurring obsession in his Saint-Rémy period.

5. The village: The village in the Starry Night does not accurately depict Saint-Rémy. Art historians have identified the church spire as resembling those of northern Europe (specifically the Netherlands) more than the Provençal steeples of Saint-Rémy. The village is partly imagined or remembered.

6. The Kolmogorov turbulence: In 2006, physicists José Luis Arágon, Miguel Napsú, Raúl Cantoral, and Constantino Pérez-Alcaraz (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) published a study showing that the luminance fluctuations in the Starry Night’s swirling sky follow Kolmogorov’s 1941 power-law equations for turbulent fluid flow in the inertial subrange. The same property was found in Wheatfield with Crows (1890) and Road with Cypress and Star (1890), but not in Van Gogh’s non-turbulent periods (the Auvers period).

7. The Prussian blue: The dominant blue in the Starry Night is Prussian blue (Berorin-ai, invented Berlin 1704). Van Gogh adopted it from the Japanese woodblock print tradition (Hokusai’s Great Wave, c.1831) — the same tradition that uses the same Berlin-invented pigment. DeckArts is in Berlin. See: Prussian Blue: Invented Berlin 1704.

8. One sale in 10 years: Van Gogh produced approximately 900 paintings in 10 active years. He sold one: Red Vineyard at Arles, for 400 francs, to Anna Boch in 1890, the year of his death. The Starry Night was not sold in his lifetime.

9. 902 letters to Theo: Van Gogh’s correspondence with his brother Theo is the most extensive documented record of an artist’s creative process in Western art history. 902 letters. The Starry Night is described in Letter 782 (to Theo, June 1889): “at last I have a landscape with olive trees and also a new study of a starry sky.” Van Gogh did not consider it a major work. See: Van Gogh Letters — vangoghletters.org.

10. MoMA acquisition: The Starry Night was sold by its owner Justin Thannhauser to the Museum of Modern Art in 1941 for an undisclosed amount. It has been at MoMA since that year.

11. Van Gogh’s death: Van Gogh died on 29 July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, two days after being shot in the chest (the specific circumstances remain disputed). He was 37. Theo died six months later on 25 January 1891, aged 33.

12. The Van Gogh Museum: The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam was founded in 1973 by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the son of Theo and Jo van Gogh-Bonger — the nephew for whom Van Gogh painted the Almond Blossom in February 1890, five months before his death.

The Kolmogorov Turbulence: Mathematics in Paint

Andrei Kolmogorov (1903–1987) was the Soviet mathematician who published the K41 theory of turbulence in 1941: a mathematical description of the statistical properties of turbulent fluid flow in the inertial subrange. The theory describes how energy cascades from large-scale eddies to small-scale eddies in a turbulent fluid. In 2006, Mexican physicists measured the luminance fluctuations (differences in light intensity between adjacent pixels) in the Starry Night’s sky and found that they follow Kolmogorov’s power-law scaling across two orders of magnitude — the signature of turbulent flow in the inertial subrange. Van Gogh could not have known Kolmogorov’s 1941 work. The 2006 study’s finding: Van Gogh painted turbulence, mathematically correctly, from observation, 52 years before the mathematics existed. This was not found in other Impressionist or Post-Impressionist works, nor in Van Gogh’s own non-turbulent paintings.

The Asylum Window

Van Gogh voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence on 8 May 1889, after the crisis that led to the severing of his ear in December 1888 in Arles (the details of which remain disputed). He was given a room with a view east over a wheat field. He painted 150 paintings during his one-year stay — approximately one painting every two days. In addition to the Starry Night, the Saint-Rémy period produced Irises, The Olive Trees, The Reaper, and the Almond Blossom (painted in the last month of his stay, February 1890, for Theo’s newborn son). He left the asylum in May 1890 and moved to Auvers-sur-Oise. He died two months later.

Van Gogh’s Life: 900 Paintings, One Sale

Born 30 March 1853, Zundert, Netherlands. Did not begin painting until age 27. Produced approximately 900 paintings in approximately 10 active years (1880–1890). Sold one painting in his lifetime (Red Vineyard, 400 francs, 1890). Died 29 July 1890, aged 37. The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam holds the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s work. 902 letters to Theo at vangoghletters.org. See: Van Gogh: Complete Biography.

Starry Night for Home Decor

DeckArts Starry Night triptych (~$310): three decks, ~70 cm wide, 50–75% of a standard 2-seat sofa. Best wall: navy (#1B2A4A or similar). The chrome yellow stars and warm ivory village advance from the navy dark at maximum warm-cool contrast. The Prussian blue swirl partially merges with the navy — the yellow and ivory events are all that advance, which is exactly the Starry Night’s own visual programme: yellow from dark blue. 2700K warm LED directed spot mandatory — cool LED suppresses chrome yellow, which reads as flat green under 4000K+. See: Navy Blue Room Wall Art 2026; LED Lighting: Why 2700K. View Starry Night triptych →

Three Starry Night Home Programmes

1. Navy Living Room (~$310): Navy feature wall + Starry Night triptych (~$310) at 155–165 cm above sofa + warm cream sofa + aged brass arc 2700K + directed track spot. Chrome yellow and Prussian blue from navy. Total art: ~$310.

2. Navy Bedroom Above Bed (~$310): Navy above-bed feature wall + Starry Night triptych (~$310) at 165–175 cm + cream linen bedding + aged brass 2700K bedside lamp. Asylum window above the sleeping position. Total art: ~$310. See: Wall Art Above a Bed 2026.

3. Zoom Background Statement (~$310): Navy wall behind desk + Starry Night triptych (~$310) at 135–155 cm (Zoom-optimised height) + directed 2700K warm spot (visible as warm background in Zoom frame). Kolmogorov turbulence above the working position. Total art: ~$310. See: Best Wall Art for a Home Office 2026.

FAQ

What is the Starry Night painting?

Oil on canvas (73.7 × 92.1 cm), painted by Vincent van Gogh in June 1889 from the barred window of the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. The turbulent swirling sky was confirmed in 2006 to obey Kolmogorov’s 1941 mathematical equations for fluid turbulence — 52 years after Van Gogh painted it. Van Gogh produced approximately 900 paintings in 10 years and sold one. At MoMA New York since 1941. DeckArts Starry Night triptych from ~$310. On navy under 2700K warm LED. See: Van Gogh Letters; Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.