candidate: An analysis of Vincent van Gogh 's " The Starry Night " by Boime convinced him that the images in the painting 's night sky were not a fanciful artwork , but was the result of Van Gogh 's observations of the sky from the window of the asylum in Saint - Rémy - de - Provence at 4 a.m. on June 19 , 1889 , the day he wrote his brother that he had completed the painting .