Van Gogh Museum is not persuaded by study dating The Starry Night to 22 July 1889

Türkiye Today reported the museum's response on 30 October, eight days after the study appeared in Scientific Reports. The study's lead author is standing by the date. Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, chief executive of the Seoul telescope maker SLLAB and a doctoral candidate at Kyung Hee University, told The Associated Press he would "bet on this date".

The paper appeared in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, on 22 October. Kim's team matched the painting to the sky above Saint-Rémy at around 3 a.m. on 22 July 1889. That morning, a waning crescent Moon, Venus and the Hyades cluster in Taurus stood together in the east. The five central stars in the canvas, they argue, correspond to the Hyades.

That matters beyond one canvas. If the July date holds, it shifts when Van Gogh made The Starry Night. That is about a month later than the long-accepted June 1889 dating. It could also change how historians order the works Van Gogh painted at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

What the South Korean team claims

The researchers combined astronomical simulation with a statistical shape comparison called Procrustes analysis, then checked the result against weather records. They travelled to Saint-Rémy twice in 2019 to fix the painter's viewing angle from details in his paintings, such as buildings and bridges. On the morning they identify, they say, the sky was clear enough to see the stars.

Why the date is disputed

Art historians have dated the painting to June 1889 for decades. The anchor is a letter Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo around 18 June, mentioning "a new study of a starry sky". The trouble is the Moon. On 19 June 1889 it was a waning gibbous, nothing like the slim crescent on the canvas.

The museum argues that star positions cannot reliably date the work, because Van Gogh was not concerned with exact likenesses. It also notes that a serious breakdown around 22 July left him unable to paint for about a month, though the study's authors place the seizure later in July.

Jose Luis Aragon, a physicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, did not take part in the study. He called the July date "an intriguing hypothesis rather than a settled answer". Van Gogh watched the real sky closely, he said, and that is the study's strongest point.

The authors have an answer for the calendar problem. They suggest Van Gogh conceived the idea in June and finished the painting after 22 July. Their reading of his French and Dutch letters places the summer seizure later in the month than usually assumed.

What changes for art history

A July date would move The Starry Night later in the sequence of some 150 paintings Van Gogh made during his stay at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Kim said he hopes the paper prompts a renewed, multidisciplinary look at the order and working methods of the Saint-Rémy pictures. He also hopes it prompts a look at where the painter was that summer.

The team says its conversation with Van Gogh's other skies is ongoing. It plans further results. The museum's position, for now, is that its stars cannot date the canvas.

Kim has never seen the painting itself in New York. He told The Star that, now the paper is out, he really has to go and see The Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art.