Vincent van Gogh - head of a skeleton with a burning cigarette

This little painting, which was created in 1886 during his studies at the Academy in Antwerp and is now part of the constant collection of the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is considered a pupil, as if the skeleton over the members of the academy and its old-fashioned attitude make fun of Want: drawing skeletons was a usual exercise at the academy, but the young van Gogh bored and found it pointless.

© van Gogh Museum