Starry Night Over the Rhone

In September 1888, in Arles, van Gogh set his easel on the bank of the Rhône and painted the night directly, outdoors, working under a gas lamp. The town had just put in gas street lighting, and it is those new lamps that string across the far shore and pour their reflections down into the water in ribbons of gold. Overhead he laid in the Great Bear, the seven stars of the Plough, though he cheated their position, swinging the constellation round from behind him so it would sit over the town. He told Theo the sky was green-blue, the water royal blue, the gaslight yellow going down to bronze in the river. At the very front, small and easy to miss, a couple walks arm in arm along the shore.