Van Gogh's Skull with Burning Cigarette Painting

Vincent van Gogh's Skull with Burning Cigarette Painting

I think that the subject of the painting is referring to death since Van Gogh had issues with depression. Van Gogh was alive, but the painting might mean that he felt like he was dead inside. The cigarette might mean that even when feeling dead he was still doing the worldly things.

When I see anything having to do with the human skeleton I start feeling negative because it makes me think of death. The mood it brings to me is sadness and depression. I don’t like the painting because I’m the type of person who prefers to see paintings that have a lot of color and this painting is just the opposite of that. I would have liked the painting if it was a painting that had a meaning about cigarettes doing the killing to the human body, but in this case I don’t think Van Gogh meant for the painting to have that type of meaning behind it since he was a depressed man.

The colors Van Gogh used were dark. To me dark colors bring out a depressed and angry mood. This is an oil painting and it doesn’t show a lot of movement like, Starry Night or Wheat Field with Crows does. Instead, with this painting you can actually see the lines of the painting. With the painting Starry Night everything looks so blurry and you can see the movement through the painting and with this one it’s more clear and you can really see the skeleton. The background is all black and in my opinion it makes the skeleton stand out more and makes it the main focus.  

Comments

  1. Tre-Anthony WalkerFebruary 19, 2018 at 8:24 PM

    I like and agree with your analysis of the image depicted above. Taking into account Van Gogh's state of mind it can be concluded that death may have very well been on his mind. The colors and values used in the painting do give a sense of rotting and depression with how the pigment of the skull is shown. This is very stagnant and stationary in the way it is painted like you had mentioned and gives off a very exact set of feelings.

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