New research suggests there is more to Vincent van Gogh's famous painting Starry Night than meets the eye. Its turbulent, swirling sky shares many characteristics with invisible fluid dynamics processes that occur in our real-world atmosphere, an analysis of the brushstrokes and colors in the painting reveals.
Van Gogh painted Starry Night in June 1889, while he was living in an asylum in southern France as he recovered from a mental breakdown that resulted in the self-mutilation of his left ear around six months earlier. The oil-on-canvas masterpiece shows the view of a swirling sky from the window of the painter's room with an imaginary village added in the foreground, and is famous for its detailed brushstrokes and use of bright hues.
