Vincent van Gogh – Skull with Burning Cigarette

Skull with Burning Cigarette is the small painting Vincent van Gogh made in Antwerp in January and February 1886, while he was studying at the art academy there: the skull and upper spine of a skeleton in pale yellow and grey on a black ground, with a lit cigarette between its teeth. The original measures 32.3 x 24.8 cm and belongs to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 18 sizes from 25 x 32 to 160 x 200 cm or to your own measurement, and send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.

Skull with Burning Cigarette – Vincent van Gogh

What does Skull with Burning Cigarette show?

Skull with Burning Cigarette shows the head and shoulders of a skeleton, close up, against a black background. The skull is turned to the right in three-quarter view, with deep dark eye sockets, the hollow of the nose and two rows of large teeth. Between the teeth sits a white cigarette, slanting down to the right, its tip still glowing, and a thin wisp of smoke drifts off into the dark.

Below the jaw you see the vertebrae of the neck, a collarbone, the round top of the shoulder and the first ribs, painted in the same pale ochre, cream and green-grey as the skull. The bones are built up in short, thick strokes that follow their shape, which is why the skull looks solid and almost sculpted.

Why did Van Gogh paint a skeleton smoking a cigarette?

As a joke. The Van Gogh Museum calls this skeleton with a lit cigarette in its mouth a juvenile joke, painted in early 1886 while Van Gogh was studying at the art academy in Antwerp. Drawing skeletons was a standard exercise at the academy, but painting them was not part of the curriculum, so the museum concludes he must have made it at some other time, between or after his lessons.

According to Wikipedia, before it was common to work from live models, the academic routine included the study of skeletons to understand human anatomy. Van Gogh attended classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which he later said were boring and taught him nothing. The smoking skeleton can be read as a satirical comment on that teaching. The museum adds a serious point: the painting shows that he had a good command of anatomy.

What does Skull with Burning Cigarette mean?

Two readings sit side by side. The first is the joke the museum describes: a classroom skeleton given a cigarette, a bit of student mockery aimed at the academy. The second is darker. The Wikipedia article on the painting notes that it is considered a vanitas or memento mori, a reminder that life is short, painted at a time when Van Gogh himself was in poor health. It also names possible influences: Hercules Seghers, a 17th-century Dutch artist, or Félicien Rops, a Belgian contemporary of Van Gogh.

The painting is often taken as a warning against smoking, but Wikipedia points out that Van Gogh was a keen smoker himself and smoked until his death in 1890. The small canvas grins at you and reminds you of death at the same moment.

Where is the original kept?

The original is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which lists it as Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette, Antwerp, January–February 1886, oil on canvas, 32.3 x 24.8 cm, under the object number s0083V1962. It belongs to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. The museum also lends it to exhibitions; between 2024 and 2026 it travelled with Gothic Modern to Helsinki, Oslo and Vienna.

After February 1886 the canvas was with Van Gogh’s brother Theo in Paris, then with Theo’s widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, who transferred it to the foundation in 1962. It has been in the Van Gogh Museum since the museum opened on 2 June 1973.

Skull with Burning Cigarette or another early Van Gogh – which should you choose?

Skull with Burning Cigarette belongs with the dark paintings of his early years. Still Life with Bible, painted in Nuenen in October 1885, is a still life with a serious message: his late father’s Bible beside a candle and a novel. The Potato Eaters, from Nuenen in 1885, shows a peasant family at their evening meal under a lamp. A Pair of Shoes, painted in Paris in the autumn of 1886, gives two worn work boots the whole canvas, and Self-Portrait as an Artist, from his Paris years, shows him at his easel with a palette in his hand.

Choose Skull with Burning Cigarette for a small, striking canvas with dark humour, and Still Life with Bible for a quieter, serious still life.

How is our hand-painted Skull with Burning Cigarette made?

The painter first draws the skull, the line of the jaw, the neck and the shoulder, and checks the proportions against the original. Then come the black background, the bone in pale ochre, cream and green-grey, the shadows in the eye sockets and between the teeth, and last the white cigarette, its glowing tip and the thin trail of smoke. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand in oil on canvas with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.

On this painting the relief matters most on the cranium, the cheekbone and the teeth, where Van Gogh laid the paint on in short, thick strokes. A print shows only a flat surface; on our painting the strokes are real.

Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same. Before dispatch we photograph it, sending you the photograph to approve.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 25 x 32 or 30 x 40 cm for a desk, a shelf or a narrow piece of wall, 50 x 65 or 60 x 80 cm in a hallway or above a sideboard, 80 x 100 or 100 x 130 cm above a sofa or a bed, and 160 x 200 cm for a large empty wall. The upright portrait format suits a study, a bar corner, a hallway or a living room.

There are 18 sizes: 25 x 32, 30 x 40, 40 x 50, 40 x 52, 50 x 65, 50 x 66, 60 x 80, 68 x 91, 74 x 94, 80 x 100, 90 x 113, 100 x 130, 108 x 145, 120 x 160, 129 x 170, 138 x 180, 147 x 193 and 160 x 200 cm (width x height). The original is only 24.8 cm wide and 32.3 cm high; our 25 x 32 cm size is practically the same, so the painting on your wall is as large as in the museum. The black ground looks best on a white, light grey or cream wall, and also on a deep green or dark red one. A painting for the living room should cover about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, leaving 20 to 30 cm between the furniture and the bottom edge.

What if I need a custom size or a frame?

If none of the 18 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure. Keep the proportions close to the original, otherwise the skull gets squeezed or stretched. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote a price and a lead time. Every painting we make is stretched over a wooden stretcher and ready to hang.

For the moulding, use our 3D application: it shows each of our frame profiles on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood – the application is for choosing the frame only. Seeing the painting on your own wall is our separate room placement service. A plain black frame continues the dark background, and an old gold frame picks up the yellow of the bone.

How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?

Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it stretched and protected, framed if you chose a frame, across the EU with no customs. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.

More famous Van Gogh paintings are in the Vincent van Gogh gallery, and there is more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If you are giving it as a present and are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Skull with Burning Cigarette by Van Gogh today?

In the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The museum lists it as Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette, Antwerp, January–February 1886, oil on canvas, 32.3 x 24.8 cm, object number s0083V1962, owned by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. It stayed in the Van Gogh family from 1886 until 1962 and has been in the museum since it opened in 1973.

When and where did Van Gogh paint Skull with Burning Cigarette?

In Antwerp, in January and February 1886, according to the Van Gogh Museum. He was studying at the art academy there at the time, where drawing skeletons was a standard exercise. Older sources, including Wikipedia, call the canvas undated and place it in the winter of 1885–86, which is why both 1885 and 1886 appear in books and online.

Why did Van Gogh paint Skull with Burning Cigarette?

Most likely as a joke. The Van Gogh Museum calls it a juvenile joke: drawing skeletons was a standard exercise at the Antwerp academy, but painting them was not, so he made it between or after his lessons. Wikipedia reads it as a satirical comment on conservative academic teaching, which Van Gogh later called boring.

What is the meaning of Skull with Burning Cigarette?

It carries two meanings at once. On the surface it is student humour, a classroom skeleton given a cigarette. Underneath, Wikipedia notes, it is considered a vanitas or memento mori, a reminder of death, painted when Van Gogh was in poor health. Both readings fit the small canvas.

Did Van Gogh smoke, like the skeleton in Skull with Burning Cigarette?

Yes. Wikipedia points out that Van Gogh was a keen smoker himself and continued to smoke until his death in 1890, which is why the canvas is hard to read as a simple warning against smoking. The cigarette in the skeleton’s teeth is more likely part of the joke than a moral lesson.

Did Van Gogh paint other skulls besides Skull with Burning Cigarette?

Yes, a few. Wikipedia lists a sketch from the same Antwerp period, Hanging Skeleton and Cat, and two more paintings of a skull from 1887–88. Those are the only other works of his, besides one drawing, that use skulls as a motif. Skeletons were part of everyday exercises at the Antwerp academy, which explains both the sketch and this canvas.

How big is the original Skull with Burning Cigarette?

The original is 32.3 cm high and 24.8 cm wide, a small upright format, only a little larger than a sheet of A4 paper. Our 25 x 32 cm size is practically the same as the original and suits a desk, a shelf or a narrow wall. For a wall above a sofa or a bed there are larger sizes up to 160 x 200 cm, as well as custom sizes.

Is Skull with Burning Cigarette a good painting to give as a gift?

It is an unusual gift with a sense of humour: for a doctor or medical student, an anatomy teacher, an art student who knows academy drawing classes, or anyone who prefers a striking canvas painting to a pretty one. Skull with Burning Cigarette suits a study, a bar corner, a studio or a hallway, and the small 25 x 32 cm size fits almost anywhere.

Does your Skull with Burning Cigarette have the raised brushstrokes of the original?

Yes. We paint our copy in impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as on Van Gogh’s original. You see it best on the cranium, the cheekbone and the teeth, where the relief catches the light against the black ground. A print cannot have this relief, because its surface is flat.

• Subject: the skull, neck and shoulders of a skeleton in pale ochre and grey on a black ground, with a lit cigarette between its teeth.
• Original: January–February 1886, Antwerp, 32.3 x 24.8 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
• Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 18 sizes from 25 x 32 to 160 x 200 cm or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.