Although The Starry Night has almost reached the same level of fame as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa in the last century, at the time of its creation, neither the artist nor other spectators deemed the piece particularly impressive. It is characteristic of Van Gogh’s most expressive period, when he was increasingly troubled by a mental illness that would lead to his suicide a year later. Many art historians have offered various interpretations of the piece and debated the extent to which it was influenced by the artists illness; some have suggested that the bold clashing of gold and blue reflect Van Gogh’s inner turmoil, while the authors of Janson’s History of Art believe it more accurately presents a “utopia he dreamed of… in harmony with universal