Collection/1800s

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh

A skeleton’s skull with a lit cigarette between its teeth. Van Gogh painted it in Antwerp in early 1886, while he was taking classes at the art academy.

It is a student joke, poking fun at the academy’s endless anatomy lessons with skeletons. It is also one of the very few humorous pictures he ever made.