Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, Saint-Rémy, June 1889. Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.

Vincent van Gogh, Cypresses.  1889. Oil on canvas. 36 3/4 x 29 1/8 in. (93.4 x 74 cm). Rogers Fund, 1949. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

NEW HAVEN, CT.- The Yale University Art Gallery exhibits side by side two of Vincent van Gogh’s most renowned paintings, Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and The Starry Night (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Completed in June 1889, during his yearlong confinement at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, in southern France, these two paintings exemplify the work of this modern master at the height of his creativity.

The installation of Van Gogh’s Cypresses and The Starry Night: Visions of Saint-Rémy is on view June 15–September 7, 2008 at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most beloved and well-known artists of the modern era. The emotional energy of his works, which employ a vibrant palette and thick brushstrokes, continues to resonate with viewers even a hundred years after their creation. In an unprecedented arrangement, the Museum of Modern Art is lending van Gogh’s The Starry Night, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is lending Cypresses to the Gallery. In both works, van Gogh’s dazzling use of clear, bold colors laid down in swirling, gestural strokes demonstrates his expressive and imaginative power. Together, Cypresses and The Starry Night reveal the artist’s vivid and tender vision of Saint-Rémy as he observed the French countryside from his window—by day and through the night.

The paintings, both staples of the New York museum world, have attracted record numbers of visitors to their home institutions. The opportunity to present the masterpieces together at the Gallery, for the first time in New England, is a great privilege. Viewers also have the distinct advantage of being able to see the works free of charge and within the context of the Gallery’s own stellar collection.

Van Gogh’s Cypresses and The Starry Night: Visions of Saint-Remy is organized by Jennifer Gross, the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Yale University Art Gallery. The installation is made possible by an endowment created with a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.