Skull with a Burning Cigarette — Vincent van Gogh

Who knew?

It wasn't all sunflowers and starry nights. 

This small (12.6" x 9.6") undated oil-on-canvas painting is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

From Wikipedia:

It was most likely painted in the winter of 1885-86 as a satirical comment on conservative academic practices. 

Before it was common to use live humans as models, the academic routine included the study of skeletons to develop an understanding of human anatomy.

Van Gogh was in Antwerp, Belgium at that time attending classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which he later said was boring and taught him nothing.

He included a skeleton in another work from his Antwerp period. a sketch of a hanging skeleton and cat. 

In 1887-88, he painted two more paintings with skulls, the only other works of his (besides a drawing from the same period) to use skulls as a motif. 

Although often interpreted as a criticism of smoking, Van Gogh himself was a keen smoker, and continued to smoke until his death in 1890 at the age of 37.