Starry Night Over the Rhône — not to be confused with the more famous piece “Starry Night” - are both painted by Vincent Van Gogh. Personally, I enjoy looking at Starry Night Over the Rhône more. The landscape depicts a night sky, and bright yellow reflections of the Arles gas lighting across the Rhône's sparkling blue river, with two lovers strolling along the riverbank in the foreground. A sense of calmness washes over me as I look at this painting. 

To me, Starry Night Over the Rhône is more refined than Starry Night. The colder hues reflect the desertedness of the night, while the warmer hues encapsulate the warmness of the stars, helping to balance out the whole painting. The corners of the painting are darker to draw more attention to the center of the piece. You could see each stroke clearly: how well the colors blend together even with the well-defined strokes, but also how prominent the yellow stands out in some places. The sky uses short strokes to better shape the volume of the sky, and the neat, horizontal strokes are used to express the calmness of the lake and sky. The painting depicts an ample open space, giving the viewer a sense of stability, the blues that were picked emphasize nighttime, further emphasizing a sense of peacefulness. However, the yellow — depicting lights, gives a sense of life. The lights bring some familiarity to the viewers, in an unfamiliar place. 

Personally, I find that Starry Night Over the Rhône is a great piece, and the techniques used are more varied than Starry Night. Starry Night Over the Rhône gives you more things to look at and be mesmerized. Starry Night Over the Rhône has more depth in the landscape, it feels more open and far, while Starry Night is more “to the front”. The blues with the yellow just brings a calm and melancholy, but safe feel to the whole painting. There’s not much to say about why I like Over the Rhône more, it just speaks to me more than Starry Night.

Van Gogh was intrigued by the challenge of painting at night and mainly painted this piece as practice. However, to me, I look at it when I feel stressed and don’t know what to do, everything about this piece to me is just satisfying to look at. When I’m stressed, I bring myself to look at this piece and study the techniques and ways that Van Gogh uses to draw and bring myself back to continue working.