Physics Pulse x Ophelia's Magazine

🌌✨ Vincent van Gogh & The Starry Night: A Glimpse Into the Artist's Soul ✨🌌

By: Mahnoor Farooqi + Ophelia's Magazine

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In 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, a swirling masterpiece that took shape during his time at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Plagued by mental health struggles, he was tormented by deep sadness, epilepsy, and fits that shattered his peace, yet his spirit still burned with an intense, unquenchable creative fire. 

During the long, quiet nights at the asylum, Vincent gazed out his window at the village below and up at the stars, finding both solace and chaos in the sky. He once wrote to his brother Theo, describing the “terrible passions” and the “starry night sky, more alive than any.” This piece, born from his emotional turbulence, reflects not just what he saw but what he felt: the vast beauty of the cosmos, alive and trembling.

In The Starry Night, the swirling patterns and vibrant contrasts between the blues, yellows, and whites aren’t just brushstrokes; they’re expressions of van Gogh’s own inner turmoil and awe. He painted the sky as an endless vortex, with stars and cypress trees stretching like flames toward the heavens. It’s as if the stars are in motion, illuminating the quiet village below with their feverish dance. 

This work was revolutionary because it captured emotion over realism—a vision that pulsated with life and symbolized the intensity of the artist’s mind. Though Vincent would not live to see the recognition he deserved, The Starry Night stands as a testament to his genius and as a reminder of how beauty and brilliance can emerge from struggle. 

Every stroke tells us that the universe is not just a quiet, distant sky; it’s alive, wild, and filled with dreams. And in the heart of a tormented artist, those dreams came alive in color, rhythm, and light.

Turbulent flow is flow in which a fluid undergoes irregular fluctuation. Among the greatest features of the human brain is its ability to recognise patterns. One of these patterns is turbulent flow. However, although it is difficult to analyse turbulence mathematically due to its chaotic nature, it can still be depicted through art. Van Gogh’s strokes convey a night sky filled with swirling patterns. In Physics such patterns are called ‘eddies’ a feature of turbulent flow.

But how did the painter come to witness turbulence at all? Well Van Gogh had admitted himself into a mental hospital ; With nothing else to do it is theorised that he spent most of his time staring at the sky and the water. Over time his brain began recognising the patterns within it!

In the first studies of ‘The Starry Night’ done by Chinese and French scientists they had discovered the similarities to ‘eddies’ formed in turbulent flow but did not yet have the knowledge to be able to compare the amplitudes and quantify it.  Scientist Huang however went through the complete trouble and not only measured each Eddie discovering that it met the requirements of the mathematical functions describing turbulent flow but also studied the paint. He found that the paint mixes with the background whirls in a similar fashion to Turbulence.

James R Beattie conducted a Large Compressible MHD(study of the interaction between magnetic fields and electricity conducting fluids) Turbulence Simulation with no net magnetic flux (magnetic field lines going in 1 direction) Using the equation for conservation of momentum for a hydrodynamical fluid element he found the ratio of the Ryenold’s number which in turn if applied to two separate waves gives a higher wave mode. As you continue applying it to more waves even higher waves  are produced.

If applied to the galaxy, at the largest scale (Reynolds number) all the way to the smallest you would find that the Reynold’s number gradually decreases as you calculate further. This is the direct transfer of energy from a large scale to smaller scales. What you see in the simulation of equations is turbulence in molecular clouds aka. The birthplace of stars which Van Gogh has painted in ‘The Starry Night’ 

Van Gogh, in his days at the mental hospital, coincidentally painted the patterns of this flow purely based on his daily observation of how the stars moved. The mastery in that painting is how each piece of it is made to look like it is moving and time is flowing. The painter Years ago managed to capture with paint a phenomenon that to this day remains a mystery to astrophysicists. Truly, showing how this piece is a historical marvel of a work of art. 

💫 “Look at the stars. Look how they shine for him…”