computers in astronomy Dating van Gogh's Moonrise Astronomical sleuths head to France to answer some nagging questions about a 19th-century painting. By Donald Wo Olson, Russell Lo Doescher, and Marilynn So Olson RT HisTORIANS HAVE LONG selves.As astronomers, we have a keen shows wheat stacks in a field enclosed by agreed that Vincent van Gogh interest when the paintings' subjects in- a stone wall and, in the twilight sky, a painted his spectacular Starry clude objects in the sky. prominent orange disk partly hidden be- ~ lVight between June 16 and Previously, we identified Venus as the hind a mountain range. Once again, as- 18, 1889, in the town of Saint-Remy-de- heavenlyobject in van Gogh's White House tronomical calculations helped eliminate Proverice in southern France. Evidence at Night, painted in northern France the ambiguity. for pinning down the when and where of (S&T: April 2001, page 34). During our van Gogh's works comes largely from his research for that project, we became in- Van Gogh in Saint-Remy own correspondence with his relatives terested in another astronomical paint- After suffering a series of medical crises and colleagues. Sometimes there are ing from Saint-Remy that had an uncer- while in the town of Aries, van Gogh other clues within the works of art them- tain date. This painting, known as F735, moved to the hospital housed in the Past art historians have been able to determine some details about this painting by Vincent van Gogh, but astronomers were able to pinpoint the timing of the scene. Once thought to show the setting Sun at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France, it is now known to be a rendition of a rising Moon. 54 Saint-Paul monastery at Saint-Remy on Left: In May 1889, van Gogh moved from May 8, 1889.By the time of his discharge Aries to Saint-Remy-de-Provence to restore his on May 16, 1890, he had produced near- health. He stayed for a year and created near- ly 150 paintings and 140 drawings - ly 150 paintings, inspired by his surroundings. works that reflected his interest in the natural light of southern France and the Below: The overhanging cliff painted by van comfort and reassurancehe found in na- Gogh actually exists to the southeast of the ture. More than a dozen of these show Saint-Paul monastery in Saint-Remy. The au- similar views of the enclosed wheat field, thors determined the altitude and azimuth of with houses visible beyond the wall and the outcropping by observing the Sun, Moon, the Alpilles Mountains rising on the and stars for six days. In this photograph the Cn Moon is only faintly visible because the Sun right.l " Van Gogh often looked at the sky was well above the horizon. from his room on the upper floor of the east side of the monastery, as he men- tioned in a letter (no.592) of late May 1889 to his brother Theo in Paris: Through the windows with iron bars I seean enclosedwheat field. ..above which I seethe sun rise in all its glory in the morning. Another letter (no.593), from the first week of June 1889, describes an observa- tion ofVenus: This morning I looked at the country- side from my window for a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star which appearedvery large. The view across the enclosed field is thus generally toward the east,and paint- ing F735 therefore depicts the rising (not completed by a committee of e~erts tus? Unfortunately, the letter itself does setting) of a celestial body. after the author's death, assigns to F735 not bear either a handwritten date or a the title Rising Moon: Haycocksand gives postmark. Sun? Moon? What Month? the date as July 6, 1889. Letter 603, numbered by Theo's wife Much as modern astronomers use Messier All thesescholars have used van Gogh's after her husband's death, is considered numbers, art historians refer to van Gogh's many letters to help determine the con- especially troublesome to date. All mod- works by the catalog numbers assigned tent and sequence of his paintings, and ern scholars agree that it must be moved by Jacob-Baart de la Faille in his 1928 in this case the correspondence makes it in the sequence (that it does not fall be- compilation, which inevitably contained certain that F735 shows a rising Moon. tween letter 602 of late August and letter some errors, as do all such monumental During the summer of 1889 van Gogh 604 of early September), but they differ and pioneering works. For example, he mailed an envelope containing two let- on exactly what date to give to letter 603 listed F735 with the title Sunset and re- ters, one to Theo (no.603) and another and thereby to the moonrise painting "in marked that the "yellow-orange solar " (now lost) written to the artist Paul Gau- progress. globe sinks behind the dark blue moun- guin, with a sketch of a reaper cutting Jan Hulsker, an authority on van tains that limit the horizon." A 1937 cat- the wheat in the enclosed field. Vincent Gogh's correspondence, noted in 1972, alog by Willem Scherjon and W. J. de described to Theo several completed "The change in the sequence of these Gruyter altered the title of F735 to Rising paintings and then went on to add: letters is not only important from the bi- Moon (Haycocks) and placed it with the ographical angle, but a1so for the chro- works from August or September 1889. I have one in progressof a moonrise over the sam~field as the sketchin the nology of van Gogh's art for it means In his revision published in 1939, de la that the canvasesreferred to in 603 should Faille titled F735 Moonrise and favored letter to Gauguin,but with wheatstacks replacing the wheat. It is dull yellow be dated two months earlier:' Hulsker September 1889. But the most recent moves letter 603 to July 6th and dates (1970) editio? of the de la Faille catalog, ochreand violet. Anyway,you will seeit sometimesoon. the medical crisis from "about July 8 till 1Readers can find images of van Gogh'spaint- about the middle of August:' A recent During this same summer van Gogh's catalog by Hulsker (The New Complete ings and the full text of his letters at www health took a downturn, and he pro- Van Gogh, 1996) likewise dates F735 as .vangoghgallery.com.The Saint-Remy enclosed duced almost no paintings for about six July 6, 1889. wheatfield also appearsin paintings F618, F650, weeks. Did he paint the moonrise and But Ronald Pickvance, curator of the F718,and F737,drawing F1552,and malty others. write letter 603 before or after this hia- Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1986 ex- Sky & Telescope I July 2003 55 >. hibition "Van Gogh in Saint-Remy and E Auvers:'places the moonrise painting in o the range of July 8-13. Pickvance favors c o a date Qf about July 14th for the letter ~ +I (rio. 603) that describes the moonrise III ra canvas and July 16th for the onset of the C crisis. III Can we use astronomical methods to ~ GJ date the moonrise painting directly, with- +I out relying on letter 603? ~ 0. E Possible Dates and Questions 0 We can be certain that van Gogh created v F735 between May 8th, when he first ar- rived at Saint-Remy, and late September, when he mailed the canvas to Theo in a batch of 10 paintings that also included the famous Starry Night. The bright orange orb in F735 must be either a full Moon rising near sunset From left to right: Russell Doescher, Claude Suc, and Donald Olson plan observations in a or a nearly full Moon rising in evening Saint-Remy olive orchard. Photograph by Marilynn Olson. twilight, shortly after sunset. Computer calculations for 1889 quickly showed the ings from Saint-Remy. based in Aries. Three of the group's only possible dates: May 15-17, June We wondered: Does Moonrise accu- members, Claude Suc, Vincent Suc, and 13-15, July 12-14, August 11-13, and rately depict the landscape near Saint- Bruno Massal, helped us by scouting September 9-11. Paul monastery? Could we find the dou- possible observing locations and then ac- A striking feature of Moonrise is the ble house and the overhanging cliff? companying us during our visit. distinctive overhanging cliff that partial- What are the azimuth and altitude of the Within minutes of our arrival in Saint- ly blocks the disk of the Moon. Van cliff as seen from the wheat field? Did a Remy, we were gratified to see that the Gogh also included, in the foothills be- nearly full Moon rise in that direction on overhanging cliff actually does exist to low the cliff, an unusual "double house" a date during 1889? the southeast of Saint-Paul! Measuring with the appearance of a smaller struc- its azimuth and altitude was not simple, ture attached to a larger building. We Trip to Provence in part becauseSaint-Paul is still a work- were encouraged that these might be To answer these questions, we traveled to ing hospital, with both van Gogh's for- real features of the landscape because Saint-Remy in June 2002. Before leaving mer room and the enclosed field (now a the overhangingcliff and the double house Texas, we contacted Les Astronomes Am- garden) strictly off-limits. (Tourists are appear in so many of van Gogh's paint- ateurs Du Delta, an astronomy club allowed to visit a different room called Above: The "double house" of the Moonrise painting still stands in Saint-Remy.