Starry Night Over the Rhône

Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

Musée d'Orsay

This luminous Post-Impressionist masterpiece captures the banks of the Rhône River in Arles, France at night, where gas lamps cast golden reflections onto shimmering waters beneath a sparkling celestial canopy. Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter who tragically took his own life at just 37 years old, painted this serene nocturne during one of his most productive periods in the South of France. The painting features two lovers strolling along the riverbank in the foreground, while the Great Bear constellation sparkles above in brilliant greens and pinks against an aquamarine sky. This evocative work represents a rare moment of tranquility in van Gogh's turbulent final years and serves as a predecessor to his more famous 1889 Starry Night, making it a captivating conversation piece for any art lover's home.