Setbacks and Perseverance. An Artist’s Life

Using astronomy to analyse the van Gogh drawing ‘Bank of the Rhone’

“…Interestingly, art historians have determined, based on technique and letters to his brother Theo, that van Gogh likely created the drawing in the first week of May 1888 (see [5,6]). When set to May 5th, however, the SunCalc app shows the sun setting on the opposite bank of the Rhone, contradicting the drawing's position, as the sun would be very high above the Trinquetaille Bridge in spring/summer (figure 5).…”