10 Starry Night Paintings That Are Not by Van Gogh

1. Jean-François Millet, Starry Night

There is no other way to start this article than with Jean-François Millet’s Starry Night. Selected as NASA’s Astronomical Picture of the Day in March 2020, this breathtaking nocturne holds discoveries for space enthusiasts. While most paintings of the night sky portray stars as loosely scattered dots, Millet’s depiction can be considered astronomically accurate.

Take a look at the upper right and try to find three stars placed in a line. This is an asterism called Orion’s Belt, which consists of three prominent star systems: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. They are the most recognizable part of the constellation of Orion, and are easy to spot during the winter season. A more advanced eye will also spot the Canis Major constellation, with Sirius—the most luminous star in the Earth’s night sky.

2. Peter Doig, Milky Way

Milky Way is one of the earliest paintings by Scottish contemporary artist Peter Doig. It presents a seemingly tranquil scene, with the Milky Way galaxy and stars shining in the dark sky, their reflections shimmering in the deep water. The star-studded sky transitions into an eerie light from a nearby city. The light falls on the surreal shapes of trees and the jagged green foliage of the shoreline.

Seemingly tranquil and suddenly unsettling, the Milky Way light mesmerizes so much that we don’t notice we’re part of a horror scene. Look closely—in the center of the painting, there is a small figure, a girl in a canoe. This part was directly inspired by a scene from Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 film Friday the 13th. Doig caught a glimpse of the Milky Way while working from a barn studio in rural Canada. The artist created seven “canoe” paintings over the next few years. He described the Milky Way as a mixture of what he could see from his barn and other sketches he made of the northern Canadian pine forests.

3. Franz von Stuck, Falling Stars

This romantic nocturnal landscape is a piece by Franz von Stuck, a renowned artist of the Munich Secession. The canvas is dominated by a luminous pattern of stars, with two meteors streaking across the night sky. On the hill, a couple enjoys this intimate rendezvous moment. The woman is gazing upward at the shooting stars, as if making a secret wish. The man, enamored, looks directly at her. Maybe he has made a wish for a kiss and is waiting for it to come true?

The couple depicted is Von Stuck himself and his beloved wife, Mary. In the artwork of this Symbolist painter, nature and landscapes are used as means to introduce a story and define its mood. Here, the luminous sky creates a magical atmosphere, capturing a short moment—a glimpse of a passing meteor, and just as fleeting, the luminosity of a loving look.

4. Edvard Munch, Starry Night

Edvard Munch found his Starry Night on the Åsgårdstrand coastline. It’s a small beach resort south of Oslo in Norway, where the artist spent many of his summers. This masterpiece is a great representation of Munch’s way of painting, where the subject is not nature itself, but rather the feelings and mood the landscape can convey. The blues bring a sense of pensive sadness and melancholy, so commonly felt when looking at infinite water or the night sky.

There is a whole series of night sky paintings by the artist, many of them simply named Starry Night—like the one from Oslo’s Munch Museum. They are a great example of how a look from a scientific angle can change our perception of the painting.

For many years, it was believed that the brightest star-spot visible in the sky is the planet Venus. This interpretation was first proposed by art historian Louise Lippincott in 1989, and it works perfectly from the art historian’s perspective. As one of the most visible spots in the sky just before sunrise or after sunset, Venus most likely inspired many painters working on landscapes. The first title of this painting was The Evening Star, a phrase often used to describe the planet.

However, a 2010 research paper by the Department of Physics at the University of Texas made calculations showing that Venus could not be visible in the eastern sky from this exact location in 1893. This means the celestial body observed by Munch was most likely Jupiter, and the visible stars could belong to the Pleiades star cluster.

5. Georgia O’Keeffe, Starlight Night, Lake George

The starry, or in this case, starlit night brought inspiration also to Georgia O’Keeffe, American modernist painter. Famous for her vibrant renditions of flowers, the artist frequently portrayed nature. In a letter written to artist Russell Vernon Hunter, she shared tips on her process: “Try to paint your world as though you are the first man looking at it. The wind . . . and the cold. The dust. And the vast starlit night.”

And so we imagine, just like O’Keeffe did, that we are the first ones looking at this starry nightscape. We see stars, represented by white orbits with slight tints of blue, organized in triangular lines, imitating constellations. The sky darkens at the very edge of the painting, suggesting the sky’s vastness. More stars reflect in the wavy lake, along with two glimmering artificial lights. This scene represents the view seen from Stieglitz’s estate at Lake George, where O’Keeffe would spend many of her summers. It’s a later version of her 1917 watercolor, well known as a Christmas card.

6. Adam Elsheimer, Flight into Egypt

This renowned piece by Adam Elsheimer is considered to be the first naturalistic depiction of the night sky in Renaissance art. It tells the story of the Holy Family as they’re fleeing to Egypt and seeking shelter. The scene takes place at night, allowing the artist to present many light sources within the composition and show his affinity for astronomical observations.

The star brightness is not uniform, reflecting their magnitudes as seen from Earth. We can recognize detailed constellations, like  Ursa Major at the far left of the Milky Way, and Leo with its brightest star, Regulus, just above the Holy Family. Research suggests the painting was reworked in 1610, right after the publication of Galileo’s  Sidereus Nuncius. This approach is supported by Elsheimer’s portrayal of the Milky Way as a hazy light galaxy band formed from a multitude of smaller stars, and the moon with a rugged and cratered surface, both based on knowledge from Galileo’s telescope observations.

7. Henri-Edmond Cross, Landscape with Stars

This watercolor painting by Henri-Edmond Cross is a delicate rendering of the star-speckled night sky above a minimalist landscape. The sky fully dominates the composition, pulling us into this ephemeral scene. In the center, the stars form a tighter group, likely portraying the arc of the Milky Way galaxy. By mixing the tiny dabs of yellow, blue, and gray with more dynamic brushstrokes, Cross captures the scene’s luminosity in an impressionistic manner. The more we look at the painting, the more the stars seem to shimmer, drawing us into the scene.

While we don’t know exactly where the piece was created, we can assume it’s a representation of a real view. If observed from a rural spot, the Milky Way galaxy, along with its multitude of surrounding stars, could have been clearly visible. It’s bittersweet to think the night sky Cross experienced was so different from the one we see today.

8. Józef Chełmoński, Starry Night

This oil painting by Polish realist artist Józef Chełmoński is one of his first compositions not featuring any humans. Immersing us in shades of blue, it shows the night sky, only faintly divided from the earth by a thin streak of land. The multitude of bright star spots reflects in the calm water. Almost monochromatic, the piece exudes tranquility. While the stars do not form correct asterisms, their multi-tonality gives them a realistic look.

This lack of accuracy in presenting constellations was widely criticized by the artist’s contemporaries. The Polish writer Bolesław Prus called the “spangled dots instead of constellations” almost as much of a scandal as “painting a horse with horns.” The painter and art critic Stanisław Witkiewicz offered a kinder counterpoint, appraising the piece by saying, “Truth in art does not depend on the authenticity of the portrayed scene—Chełmoński’s sky with its astronomical chaos is utterly real.”

9. Wenzel Hablik, Starry Sky, Attempt

Wenzel Hablik’s Starry Sky, Attempt pulls us right into the gravity of the cosmos. It’s a wild, psychedelic ride, in which we’re floating through orbs of planets towards the unknown center. In this deep space travel, we see celestial bodies of many types. Each planet has a different color, some might be gas giants, some might have water, some radiate plasma, or are surrounded by rings. Orbiting nearby are stars of different shapes and sizes, some meeting in intricate asterism groups, enveloping in a whirlpool. In the foreground, there are rocky shapes encrusted with crystals—Hablik’s favorite source of inspiration.

Is it a black hole sucking us in, or are we witness to the universe’s rapid expansion? This painter, designer, and craftsman associated with German Expressionism once said, “Everything that exists once was an idea.” Just as metaphorically, all we know to be true was once just hot and dense matter.

10. Giotto di Bondone, Star Chamber of the Scrovegni Chapel

This starry night ceiling is a portion of a fresco by the Italian proto-Renaissance master, Giotto di Bondone. The blue sky covers the entire ceiling of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, and was created around 1303–1305. The chapel walls are covered by a pictorial cycle, telling the stories of Christ and the Holy Virgin.

Giotto’s sky is ultramarine blue and studded with eight-pointed golden stars, a symbol of the infinity of God’s blessings. Among the stars are eight planets represented as circular tondos with portraits of the Old Testament Prophets and John the Baptist. The sky has two suns, one with God, and another with Mother Mary with the Child (see image above). Giotto often used celestial objects in his art—in the same chapel, we can find the Adoration of the Magi fresco, with a depiction of Halley’s comet.

P.S. If you’d like to have a copy of the most famous Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, you can purchase a premium print from our shop!