Question: Who did Van Gogh communicate with in 1888 where he expressed his intention to paint the night sky?
About the article "The Starry Night", section "Genesis".

Candidate passages:
In a letter written to Émile Bernard in April 1888, Van Gogh expressed his desire to paint the night sky, and questioned whether he could achieve his intention by painting from nature as the Impressionists did:In September 1888, before his December breakdown that resulted in his hospitalisation in Arles, he painted "Starry Night Over the Rhone".
Working by night under a gas lamp, Van Gogh painted this work directly from nature.
"It does me good to do what's difficult, "Van Gogh wrote, "That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word—for religion—so I go outside at night to paint the stars.
"In May 1889, Van Gogh decided to enter the asylum at Saint-Rémy, where he stayed for the next year.
His time there was very productive, although interrupted by incapacitating nervous attacks.
Inspired by the landscape surrounding the asylum, he painted "Starry Night" in June 1889.
Unlike the earlier "Starry Night Over the Rhone", the new night scene was painted in daylight, from memory.
In mid-September 1889, following a heavy crisis which lasted from mid-July to the last days of August, he thought to include "Starry Night" in the next batch of works to be sent to his brother, Theo, in Paris.
In order to reduce the shipping costs, he withheld three of the studies, including "Starry Night".
These three went to Paris with the shipment that followed.
When Theo did not immediately report its arrival, Vincent inquired again and finally received Theo's commentary on his recent work.
Portrait of Artist's Mother is a painting Vincent van Gogh made in 1888 of his mother, Anna Carbentus van Gogh from a black-and-white photograph.
In September 1888 Van Gogh - answering to a letter of his sister Wil who had told him of a recent photograph of their mother - asked for a print.
About a week later he received it, but - ""troubled by the black"" - sat down to paint a copy based on this likeness: Van Gogh's initial introduction to art was through his mother, an amateur artist.
After years of strained relationship with family members, Van Gogh excitedly shared some of his works his mother would cherish most, those of flowers and natural settings.
In this painting of his mother, Van Gogh captures her dignified, proud nature.
Van Gogh made the painting, " Memory of the Garden at Etten", to depict an older woman who he envisioned as his mother and a younger woman in a plaid shawl to represent his sister Wil and the lovely gardens of the Netherlands.
In a letter to his sister Wil Van Gogh said he had "an impression of you like those in Dicken's novels."
Artistic style.
Van Gogh's early works were made with dull, gray colors.
In Paris, he met leading French artists Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat and others who provided illuminating influences on the use of color and technique.
His work, previously somber and dark, now "blazed with color."
Indeed, Van Gogh's use of color became so dramatic that he was sometimes called an Expressionist.
But it was southern France that provided an opportunity for him to express his "surging emotions."
Enlightened by the effects of its sun-drenched countryside, Van Gogh reported that above all, his work "promises color".
This is where he began development of his masterpieces.
Van Gogh captured the colors and moods of the trees which varied dramatically by daylight and season.
He began to use the color blue to represent the divine.
In both "The Starry Night" and his olive tree paintings, Van Gogh used the intense blue of the sky to symbolize the "divine and infinite presence" of Jesus.
Seeking a "modern artistic language" to represent the divine, he sought a numinous quality in many of his olive tree paintings, such as by bathing olive trees, an emblem for Jesus, in "radiant gold light".
Van Gogh used the Impressionist concept of broken color to give light to a work, innovatively drawing in color, giving the painting light and form, as he also did in his paintings of plowed fields, mountains, rocks, and heads and figures.
The series is unified by a more refined approach, without the thick application of paint to which he was more accustomed. 
"Vase with Zinnias and Geraniums" (F241) reflects the influence of Adolphe Monticelli (1824–1886) in its vivid color and impasto paint.
Van Gogh admired, and later collected, Monticelli's work.
Van Gogh had been introduced by his brother Theo to Monticelli's still life work with flowers in Paris.
He admired Monticelli's use of color as an expansion of Delacroix's theories of color and contrast.
Secondly he admired the effect Monticelli created by heavy application of paint called "impasto".
It was partially Monticelli, from Marseilles, who inspired Van Gogh's southerly move to Provence in 1888.
He felt such kinship for the man, and desire to emulate his style, that he wrote in a letter to his sister Wil that he felt as if he were "Monticelli's son or his brother."
The first owner in the provenance of this painting is "C.M.
van Gogh Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands", which was owned by Van Gogh's uncle and an art dealer, Cornelius Marinus van Gogh (1824–1908).
"Bowl with Zinnias and Other Flowers" (F251), painted within days of "Vase with Zinnias and Geraniums" (F241), is evidence of Van Gogh's transition to a lighter color palette.
Picking up elements of Impressionism Van Gogh painted with a more vigorous brushstroke, with thick application of paint, called "impasto" which created a three-dimensional relief.< 
In 1886 Van Gogh left Holland for Paris never to return.
His brother Theo, a successful Parisian art dealer, provided Van Gogh the support and connections for an immersion in modern art.
In Holland Van Gogh was influenced by great Dutch masters as well as Anton Mauve a Dutch realist painter who was a leading member of the Hague School.
Mauve was a significant early influence on his cousin-in-law Vincent van Gogh.
Starting March, 1886 Van Gogh studied with Fernand Cormon.
During that time he lived with his brother Theo who leased a large apartment on Rue Lepic in Montmartre with space for a studio for Van Gogh.
Three months later Van Gogh abandoned his studies with Cormon, but his education continued as he met local artists.
During 1886 he was introduced to Impressionist artists and their works, such as Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.
In 1887 Van Gogh continued to make important connections with other artists who he befriended and exchanged paintings with, such as Louis Anquetin, Émile Bernard, Armand Guillaumin, Lucien Pissarro and Paul Signac.
Having been introduced to Impressionism and Pointillism in Paris, Van Gogh began experimenting with related techniques, first on a series of self-portraits before he moved on to larger, more complex compositions.
Many of the Impressionist artists also shared his interest in Japanese wood block prints.
The works of Japanese print makers, Hiroshige and Hokusai greatly influenced Van Gogh, both for the beautiful subject matter and the style of flat patterns of colors, without shadow.
Van Gogh arranged an exhibit in Paris of Japanese prints at Café du Tambourin.
In the two years, from 1886 through 1888, Van Gogh emerged as a sophisticated, thoughtful and provoking artist.
It is through association with artists in Paris that Van Gogh began to dream of a utopian artists community where "like-minded" individuals would realize "the perfect art."