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In the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the exhibition “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night” has been opened.

“The Colors of the Night” are in Van Gogh’s case  especially the colors of dawn and sunset- the moon or full moon cannot be found in many paintings.

The most important painting by Van Gogh showing a full moon comes from the Kröller-Müller Museum,  “Enclosed Field with Sheaves and Rising Moon” 1889:

Van Gogh made this painting in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Remy.

He could see this wheat fieldfrom his bedroom.

The moonlight is indicated by small white (originally pink) brush strokes in the painted air and scenery.

Van Gogh was not happy with this painting.

He mentionend it together with the famous “Starry Night” (see below) in a letter.

He was saying that he had exaggerated the composition in both paintings, and that both paintings resembled old woodcuts.

Van Gogh’s  moon nights at  are very expressive, and also symbolical: in his landscapes, he showed images of the forces of nature, cosmic energy, and the insignificance of man against nature.

In the painting ”  White House at Night “(1890) is a small, but full and bright” moon” to see, but it is not the moon, it is Venus.

More often than the full moon Van Gogh painted a crescent moon (see here  )

The waning moon he painted in his starry night, in the year 1889 in Saint-Remy.

The stars and the waning moon in a rhythm of light and movement behind the cypresses and the city.

Interactive video Starry Night