Vincent Van Gogh - Almond Branches in Bloom, San Remy, c.1890

closeup of Van Gogh’s Starry Night from the Art Project by Google, via

“Perhaps death is not the hardest thing in a painter’s life… Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.”