What the Letters Reveal

Van Gogh wrote hundreds of letters, mostly to his brother Theo, and they let us hear him think. About this painting his own words were oddly cool. He called it a study, even a partial failure, and worried the stars were too big.

That self-doubt cuts against the myth of a man possessed. The most cosmic night sky in Western art was made by someone calmly judging his own brushwork — and not fully satisfied with it.