Since its creation in the summer of 1889, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night has fascinated countless people all around the world. Known as one of the most famous paintings to ever exist and currently hanging in The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, its lively colors and unique techniques have captivated people for nearly two centuries. The stunning painting depicts a night sky full of swirls, stars, and the vibrant moon. This led many to wonder if the stars and moon being depicted are anywhere near accurate to those seen every nightfall on earth.
With extensive research, it was eventually found that this very question is, in fact, true for a multitude of reasons. For starters, the brushstrokes made by van Gogh resemble the turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. Created to study the way energy moves through water and air; this theory of turbulence had been derived by Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov. In this theory, large swirls or “eddies” break into smaller eddies in a predictable way, which can also be seen in van Gogh’s painting as well. This pattern of flow can also be observed in blood flow, wind, ocean currents, and even plumes of smoke.
Further, the co-author of a popular journal, Physics of Fluids, Yongxiang Huang, who is also a scholar of fluid dynamics at China’s Xiamen University, recently ordered her team to study The Starry Nights brush strokes to compare the accuracy to real-life, even going as far to use the same colors as van Gogh in order to estimate the sky’s movement. Huang’s team found 14 swirling shapes in the painting align with Kolmogorov’s theory.
Given the evidence at hand, experts stated that, because van Gogh passed away 13 years before Kolmogorov’s birth, he did not know of the theory of turbulence. Instead, just a serious master of his craft, he had already been known to be an expert observer of nature as he even stated during his lifetime.
Not only is the masterpiece known as Vincent van Gogh’s, The Starry Night an artistic expression of one’s connection to nature, but it also serves as an educational piece on the intricate turbulent patterns that have been around since the creation of the very world we know today. The recent study surrounding the painting just further proves van Gogh’s exceptional skills in observing the world around him in order to bring his experiences to others through his work.
This remarkable intersection of art and science has stood the test of time with its countless marks left on individuals and, with the new information learned, will, without doubt, attract even more into its extraordinary world.
