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Vincent van GoghDutch, 1853–1890White House at Night
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
State Hermitage Museum
Room413Saint Petersburg, Russia
On public display.
- Checked
- 29 Aug 2026
- In this state since
- Aug 30, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
White House at Night is an oil-on-canvas painting created on 16 June 1890 in the small town of Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh, six weeks before his death. It is displayed at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
According to the Hermitage Museum, the painting "expresses the great psychological tension under which Van Gogh found himself"; two of the windows, considered the "eyes" of a home, are rendered with "alarming" red splashes, while the star, a sign of fate, is seen as symbolic of van Gogh's anguish.
It is thought that van Gogh painted White House at Night around 8:00 PM due to the position of the "star" in the painting. Astronomers Donald Olson and Russell Doescher from the Texas State University-San Marcos calculated that the star in the painting must be Venus which was bright in the evening sky in June 1890. The house is the same one depicted in Blossoming Chestnut Tree.
Read on
The painting has a turbulent history. It was exhibited in Switzerland several times during the 1920s, but in the late 1920s disappeared into the private collection of German industrialist Otto Krebs. Many of his acquisitions were of a style which was soon to be labelled "degenerate art" by the Nazis, which contributed towards the already publicity-shy Krebs keeping his collection secret.
Thought to have been lost after World War II, the painting languished in the Hermitage archives for fifty years before resurfacing in 1995 as part of an exhibition displaying artworks looted by the Soviets at the end of the war. Three other van Goghs from Krebs's collection were also shown: Landscape with House and Ploughman, Morning: Going out to Work (After Millet), and the Portrait of Madame Trabuc.
Particulars
- Accession number
- ЗКРсэ-511
In the catalog
Sources
- State Hermitage Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 29 Aug 2026
- Image: State Hermitage Museum — Museum open access
Meanwhile, in the life of Vincent van Gogh
The whole life1888
Paints “Sunflowers”
Preparing for Gauguin's arrival, Van Gogh painted four versions of “Sunflowers” in one week. “In the hope of living in a studio of our own with Gauguin,” he wrote to Theo, “I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large Sunflowers.”
February 1888
To Arles, dreaming of a “Studio of the South”
The public still neither accepted nor bought his paintings, and in February 1888 Van Gogh left for Arles in the south of France to found a “Studio of the South”, a brotherhood of like-minded artists in which he gave Gauguin the leading role. Theo backed the plan with money.
23 October 1888
Gauguin arrives in Arles
After much pleading Gauguin arrived in Arles, and in November the two painted together: Gauguin portrayed Van Gogh in “The Painter of Sunflowers”, and their first joint outing was to the Alyscamps. At Gauguin's suggestion Vincent painted from memory, producing “Memory of the Garden at Etten”.
23 December 1888
The severed ear
After an altercation on the evening of 23 December, Van Gogh, seemingly hearing voices, severed his left ear, wholly or in part, with a razor and delivered it, wrapped in paper, to a woman at a brothel. Next morning a policeman found him unconscious; in hospital he was diagnosed with “acute mania with generalised delirium”.
1889
Paints “The Starry Night”
At the Saint-Paul asylum Van Gogh worked tirelessly, producing more than 150 paintings and about 100 drawings and watercolours in a year. Among them is “The Starry Night”, charged, like other works of this time, with intense nervous tension and dynamism.
29 July 1890
Died
