Starry Night Over the Rhone

Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888) by Vincent van Gogh. Its palette is led by charcoal (#1b2122, 43%) and dark slate (#293438, 33%). Overall the canvas is dark, muted and balanced between warm and cool.

Color note

Van Gogh built his color on complementary contrasts, blue against orange and red against green, learned from Delacroix and Japanese prints. Some of his reds were fugitive and have faded, so parts of his paintings are cooler today than he made them.

Palette

#1b2122 MG 222 charcoal 42.7% of canvas
#293438 MG 211 dark slate 32.7% of canvas
#3a412c MG 177 dark taupe 11.6% of canvas
#394b59 MG 098 dark muted azure blue 7.6% of canvas
#5a5e39 MG 193 golden olive 5.3% of canvas

Color families

Black 48%, Gray 28%, Brown 9%, Green 9%, Blue 5%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.30
Contrast: 0.23
Vividness: 0.017
Warmth: -0.04
Complexity: 70 cells
Hue range: 0.47
Focus: 0.14

Composition

51% of the visual weight is in the right half, 50% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.60 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 24% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 36% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 72.0 × 92.1 cm
Genre: landscape painting
Collection: Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Download the pin · Save to Pinterest