The night sky bursts with roiling energy, featuring exploding stars that contrast with the quiet order of the village below. A flamelike cypress connects earth and sky, a tree traditionally associated with graveyards. However, for Vincent van Gogh, death was not ominous. He mused, "Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star." The artist shared that he saw a very big morning star from his window before sunrise, possibly the prominent white star just left of center in the composition. The hamlet itself is invented, though its church spire evokes van Gogh's native Netherlands. Created in 1889 with oil on canvas, this highly charged picture left behind the Impressionist doctrine of truth to nature, embracing restless feeling and intense color rooted in imagination and memory. It served as a touchstone for subsequent Expressionist painting, defining Post-Impressionism.