Simon Singh, in his book Big Bang, says that The Starry Night has striking similarities to a sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy, drawn by Lord Rosse 44 years before van Gogh’s work. |from Wikipedia

Lord Rosse’s sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy (1845) appears at left; Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” (1889) is at center (the whorl has been highlighted); at right is a photograph of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken by the Hubble space telescope (2005).