Van Gogh painted Starry Night in June 1889 ... not using fluid dynamics knowledge, but likely drawing on general observations of the sky or other naturally occurring spirals as inspiration.

Though visually similar to turbulence, “The Starry Night” lacks the scientific elements needed to support that claim.

They found that “The Starry Night” was turbulent ... Researchers replaced the night sky in the painting with simulated supersonic turbulence, processed to resemble the original painting.