Description
“Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette” is an early work by Vincent Van Gogh, and a carefully mastered print. The painting reflects his dissatisfaction with traditional academic methods, symbolized by the skeleton and cigarette motif.
During his Antwerp period, Van Gogh produced another piece featuring a skeleton. Throughout his career, he only painted skulls in a few other works, indicating their significance. The painting, measuring 32 by 24.5 centimeters, serves as a vanitas or memento mori, highlighting life’s fleeting nature, especially poignant given Van Gogh’s own health struggles at the time.
While some interpret the painting as a critique of smoking, Van Gogh himself was a smoker. The artwork was initially owned by his brother Theo, passing through family until it was acquired by the Van Gogh Foundation in 1962 and later loaned to the Van Gogh Museum permanently in 1973.
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