Subject matter
What village is shown in the center part of the painting under a swirling sky?
The Starry Night
The center part shows the village of Saint-Rémy under a swirling sky, in a view from the asylum towards north. The Alpilles far to the right fit to this view, but there is little rapport of the actual scene with the intermediary hills which seem to be derived from a different part of the surroundings, south of the asylum. The cypress tree to the left was added into the composition. Of note is the fact Van Gogh had already, during his time in Arles, repositioned Ursa Major from the north to the south in his painting "Starry Night Over the Rhone". In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote of it: 