Pen pal painter: Vincent van Gogh opening in New York

“But when will I do the starry sky, then, that painting that’s always on my mind?”

Vincent van Gogh wrote to friend and fellow artist Émile Bernard in 1888 as he pondered what would become a dreamy blue star-scape in “Starry Night Over the Rhone.” Van Gogh wrote 20 letters about his art and his emotional struggles to Bernard before committing suicide two years later.

“Painted With Words,” which opens Sept. 28, 2007 and runs through Jan. 6, 2008 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York ([212] 685-0008; www.themorgan.org), details some of Van Gogh’s thoughts about his work and his inner demons. Paintings, watercolors and drawings referred to in the letters also are on display.