Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette

A skeleton stares out at us with a lit cigarette clamped between its teeth, a thin ribbon of smoke curling up into the darkness. Vincent van Gogh painted this in Antwerp around 1886, during his time studying at the art academy there. Students were often made to draw skeletons to learn anatomy, and it seems Van Gogh had some fun with the exercise. The cigarette is his own touch, a bit of dark humor added to what would otherwise be a dry classroom study.

The painting is small and quick, done with loose brushwork that hints at the bolder style he would develop later in his famous sunflowers and starry skies. People often read it as a message about mortality or the dangers of smoking, though Van Gogh himself was a heavy smoker and probably meant it more as a joke than a warning. Whatever he intended, the mix of a grim subject with a cheeky cigarette has kept the image popular for well over a century.