An installation view of 'Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light' at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki. A major European exhibition claims modern artists drew inspiration from the dark themes of Medieval Gothic art. Photo: The New York Times
Why did Vincent van Gogh paint a skeleton smoking a cigarette? His 1886 painting doesn’t quite seem to fit into his larger output, one teeming with swirling landscapes and emotive portraits.
Some art historians have said that Head Of A Skeleton With a Burning Cigarette was merely van Gogh, still an art student at the time, fooling around with an anatomy exercise. Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, the director of the Ateneum Art Museum, part of the Finnish National Gallery, has another theory.
