Vincent van Gogh - Head of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette

This small painting, created in 1886 during his studies at the Academy in Antwerp and now part of the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is considered a school prank, as if the skeleton wanted to make fun of the members of the Academy and their old-fashioned attitude: drawing skeletons was in fact a common exercise at the Academy, but the young Van Gogh was bored and found it pointless.

© Van Gogh Museum