Skull
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, May 1887
oil on canvas, 42.4 cm x 30.4 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh has used a narrow brush and blue paint to indicate the outlines of the skull. Thin paint alternates with thick: for the light reflections on the skull he has used heavy splodges of light-coloured paint.
Drying cracks are visible in many places. Look at the area immediately below the skull, for example. The paint has cracked because Van Gogh painted the skull over an earlier picture. He covered up the earlier image with a layer of zinc white – a kind of paint that dries extremely slowly. The drying out process continued after the skull had been painted over it, causing cracks to form in the top layer of paint.
- F-number
- F0297
- JH-number
- JH1346
- Object number
- s0123V1962
- Dimensions
- 42.4 cm x 30.4 cm, 50.7 cm x 38.7 cm, 5.1 cm
- Provenance
- Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, at the beginning of May 1887; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Tokyo, Sompo Museum of Art, Van Gogh and Still Life: From Tradition to Innovation, 17 October 2023-21 January 2024, no. 1
Arles, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Soleil Chaud, Soleil Tardif. Les modernes indomptés, 21 April-28 October 2018
Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 15 July-23 September 2013
Sendai, Miyagi Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 26 May-8 July 2013
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 30 March-19 May 2013
Seoul, Seoul Arts Center, Van Gogh in Paris. A dialogue with modernism, 4 November 2012-24 March 2013
Nagasaki, Huis ten Bosch (Japan), Van Gogh in Paris: New perspectives, 29 July-28 October 2012
Riehen, Fondation Beyeler, Expressiv!, 30 March-10 August 2003, no. zonder nr.
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Vincent van Gogh. Collectie ir. V.W. van Gogh, 12 October 1948-10 January 1949, no. 76
Curiger, Bice, Mylayne, Jean-Luc, Burckhardt. Jacqueline, Davis, Christie, Lencsés, Leo, automne du paradis = The autumn of paradise : Jean-Luc Mylayne, 2018, p. 40, 127
