Overview
- A South Korean team led by Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim published a peer-reviewed study this week that argues the painting best matches a predawn sky on July 22, 1889.
- Researchers used astronomy software and historical weather records to match the painted crescent moon, Venus and a V-shaped star cluster to a reconstructed sky visible from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
- The authors report they tested their forensic-astronomy methods on other night-sky paintings and published the work in Scientific Reports to show the approach is repeatable.
- Several specialists welcomed the hypothesis but cautioned that Van Gogh worked from sketches and memory in a studio, that 19th-century weather and sky records are imperfect, and that independent replication is needed.
- If corroborated, the finding could shift the chronology of Van Gogh’s Saint-Rémy work and prompt fresh conservation and archival study, while the research team says it will apply the method to other Van Gogh skies.