Scientists acting as art detectives have traced Vincent van Gogh’s painting “The Starry Night” to a celestial scene that suggests a new date for one of the world’s most famous paintings. Their findings indicate that, rather than being a figment of Van Gogh’s imagination, “The Starry Night” may have been inspired by what he saw while looking at the sky from his French asylum 137 years ago. A South Korean team reported Thursday that after years of forensic astronomy and research into the Dutch artist, they have compared his masterpiece to a pre-dawn sky over Saint-Remy de Provence in France around July 22, 1889. That’s a month later than the long-accepted time frame for the Post-Impressionist painting depicting a crescent moon and Venus surrounded by a sky of swirling stars with a town located below and cypress trees looming to one side. Read moreClimate activists target art: Van Gogh’s masterpiece ‘The Sunflowers’ defaced Art historians have long dated the painting to June 1889, shortly after Van Gogh entered the asylum. He had cut off his left ear several months earlier during an argument with the painter Paul Gauguin. A team led by Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, CEO of a Seoul telescope maker, now questions that date in a study appearing in the journal Scientific Reports. The sky most similar to the painting occurred around July 22, 1889, said Kim, who is also a doctoral candidate at Kyung Hee University. He noted that the days before and after could also have inspired Van Gogh. “No two heavens are the same. Something always changes. I think Vincent noticed those changes and put them in the painting,” Kim said in an email. And he added: “I am sure that July 22 is the best date. I will bet on this date.” The latest study addresses “a real enigma”: In mid-June 1889, the Moon was not the thin crescent painted by Van Gogh, said José Luis Aragón of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He studied “Starry Night” as a physicist, but was not involved in the new research. “Still, I would consider the July date as an intriguing hypothesis rather than a definitive answer,” Aragon said in an email. Long fascinated by Van Gogh’s art, Kim traveled to France in 2019, the first time in mid-June and the second around July 22. He found bright stars rising in the sky before dawn in July, unlike June. Kim and his team discovered through additional celestial investigations that around July 22, 1889, the pre-dawn shape of the moon resembled that in the painting, with the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus rising in the east next to Venus. The sky should have been clear enough for Van Gogh to see all of this, according to his meteorological analyses. Van Gogh is believed to have suffered a stroke around this time in July. But Kim and his team maintain that the seizure occurred in late July, based on their analysis of letters between the painter and one of his brothers. Some of those lyrics refer to cicadas, another clue pointing toward a hotter July, according to Kim. The researchers tested and verified their methods on the night sky of other paintings, resulting in what Aragon considers “a careful and genuinely interdisciplinary study.” Read moreThe postcard provides a clue to the exact location of Van Gogh’s last painting, says researcher Since Van Gogh painted in an asylum studio from sketches and from memory, “the sky is probably a combination of many nights, as the authors themselves recognize,” Aragón said. “What I find most compelling is the broader message: the painting is not pure fantasy. Van Gogh observed the real sky very closely,” Aragon said. Despite all her research, Kim has never seen “Starry Night” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “Now that the paper is out, I really have to go see ‘Starry Night’ in person, right?” said. (FRANCE 24 with AP) What is ‘The Bright Side’? For those tired of anxiety-inducing news, Bright Side highlights initiatives, new discoveries, and clearer perspectives to show progress and positivity in the world. Whether covering scientific innovations, inspiring profiles or shocking images, our stories are always based on rigorously verified facts.