The weather records for Arles tell us why van Gogh painted the sky when he did. They show two cloudy spells during mid-June that year. The sky was overcast in Arles during June 10-14 (with rain in Saint-Remy on the 12th and 13th), it was fairly clear on June 15-18 and then again became overcast on the 18-20 June. 356
…
So, all the elements of the sky in Starry Night were on view …show more content…
The predominant church alludes to traditional religious practice and faith (with its promise of salvation), while at the left a cypress—a traditional Mediterranean memento mori and the tree Van Gogh himself called “funereal”—introduces a note of death. The elegiac tenor of these motifs is, however, overpowered by the richness and animation of the celestial spectacle beyond—the image of an afterworld both vast and exciting