stars, producing, they write, "a night sky unlike any other the world had ever seen with ordinary eyes." Provenance After having initially held it back, Van Gogh sent The Starry Night to Theo in Paris on 28 September 1889, along with nine or ten other paintings. Theo died less than six months after Vincent, in January 1891. Theo's widow Jo became the caretaker of Van Gogh's legacy. In Paris in 1900 she sold the painting to poet Julien Leclercq. In 1901 Leclercq sold it to Gauguin's old friend Émile Schuffenecker. Jo bought the painting back from Schuffenecker and in 1906 sold it to the Oldenzeel Gallery in Rotterdam. From 1906 to 1938 it was owned by Georgette P. van Stolk, of Rotterdam, who sold it to Paul Rosenberg, of Paris and New York. It was through Rosenberg that the Museum of Modern Art acquired the painting in 1941. Painting materials The painting was investigated by the scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The pigment analysis has shown that the sky was painted with ultramarine and cobalt blue, and for the stars and the moon, Van Gogh employed the rare pigment indian yellow together with zinc yellow. See also Baldin Collection "Vincent", 1971 song by Don McLean written as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh Timbres, espace, mouvement: an orchestral work (1978) by Henri Dutilleux inspired by the painting References Citations Letters Sources External links The Starry Night at Who is van Gogh Van Gogh, paintings and drawings: a special loan exhibition, a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on this painting (see index) Aerial photo of monastery marking Vincent's bedroom Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, ColourLex "12 Most Famous Paintings in History", paintandpainting.com 1889 paintings Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Paintings of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence by Vincent van Gogh Churches in art Moon in art Paintings of Venus (planet)