Head of Skeleton with Cigarette by Van Gogh Square Paper Coaster

Head of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1886, is a painted oil study of a human skull and upper skeleton, in the mouth of which the artist inserted a burning cigarette, producing an effect that is both macabre and humorous. Probably painted while Van Gogh enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp early that year, the oil sketch is rendered in dramatically lit chiaroscuro, with bold areas of light painted in strokes of thick, impasto paint against a dark, earth toned umber background. This work was among the last that Van Gogh painted in his Dutch period style of somber earth colors derived from Rembrandt and 19th century Realist painters.