<P> Whitney also theorizes that the swirls in the sky could represent wind, evoking the mistral that had such a profound effect on Van Gogh during the twenty - seven months he spent in Provence . (It was the mistral which triggered his first breakdown after entering the asylum, in July 1889, less than a month after painting The Starry Night .) Boime theorizes that the lighter shades of blue just above the horizon show the first light of morning . </P> <P> The village has been variously identified as either a recollection of Van Gogh's Dutch homeland . or based on a sketch he made of the town of Saint - Rémy . In either case, it is an imaginary component of the picture, not visible from the window of the asylum bedroom . </P> <P> Cypress trees have long been associated with death in European culture, though the question of whether Van Gogh intended for them to have such a symbolic meaning in The Starry Night is the subject of an open debate . In an April 1888, letter to Bernard, Van Gogh referred to "funereal cypresses," though this is possibly similar to saying "stately oaks" or "weeping willows ." One week after painting The Starry Night, he wrote to his brother Theo, "The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts . I should like to make something of them like the canvases of the sunflowers, because it astonishes me that they have not yet been done as I see them ." In the same letter he mentioned "two studies of cypresses of that difficult shade of bottle green ." These statements suggest that Van Gogh was interested in the trees more for their formal qualities than for their symbolic connotation . </P> <P> Schapiro refers to the cypress in the painting as a "vague symbol of a human striving ." Boime calls it the "symbolic counterpart of Van Gogh's own striving for the Infinite through non-orthodox channels ." Art historian Vojtech Jirat - Wasiutynski says that for Van Gogh the cypresses "function as rustic and natural obelisks" providing a "link between the heavens and the earth ." (Some commentators see one tree, others see two or more .) Loevgren reminds the reader that "the cypress is the tree of death in the Mediterranean countries ." </P>

Who is the post-impressionist dutch painter known for his swirling style