Douglas Cooper writes in Drawings and Watercolours by Vincent Van Gogh that there was a “great stylistic change” in Van Gogh’s work between those pieces created at Arles and the later works from Saint-Rémy (Cooper 79). Through an examination of a painting created at Arles, a background can be created against which to contrast the pieces Van Gogh created at Saint-Rémy. Vincent finished Starry Night over the Rhone in September 1888, while still living at Arles, before the incident involving his ear began the downward spiral that led to his admittance to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. A number of aspects of the composition can be directly contrasted with Van Gogh’s later works, and so are worthy of examination. Firstly, the sky consists of short, relatively stout, well-blended brush strokes in a monochrome of dark blue. These form a flat, smooth sky that maintains its distance as an intangible heavenly dome. Scattered across this dome are the stars, each of which features a small halo of smooth, outward-thrusting brush strokes to accentuate its glow. The lights from the city, however, are considerably more prominent: man is asserting his presence against the infinite, and Van Gogh chooses to focus on the lights of man rather than the lights of the heavens. There is a patch of lighter blue in the sky that represents the reflection of the town on the clouds, and the gas lights dance toward the viewer, reflecting prominent gold tones across the water. The strongest presence in the painting is that of man, who in his vivacity can even dwarf the stars and cast a spotlight into the heavens. It is also important to note the differences in surface construction between the sky and water: the water features longer, less blended brush strokes that form the ripples of the Rhone as they reflect the soft gas lights of the town, in contrast to the more blended, flatter monochrome of the sky.