Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Year: c. 1885–86
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 32 cm × 24.5 cm (13 in × 9.6 in)
The very first time I saw that somebody said it was painted by Van Gogh and I didn't believe them. It didn't seem possible.
Right? For the longest time, I thought it was commissioned art for that David Sedaris book. It's just so modern-looking.
Found out about this when I first bought David Sedaris's book When You Are Engulfed In Flames.
I think his writing is good, but if you believe the character he portrays on the page, he seems like he can be a real jerk. One of these, "I live my life destructively to make for good writing material, at the expense of everyone who knows me" types. Which, maybe for him it's just a character or a parody, but there are many literati types who take that literally and make the literary world a bit poisonous. Sort of like a chud's impression of Patrick Bateman.
I didn't manage to make it very far into that book, but I knew the name well enough to be like "uh oh" when Minion Death Cult did a segment on him basically publishing a weird vindictive fantasy about firing people from their jobs, and it is....uncomfortable, to the point where it's hard to believe he released it himself. Like, bordering on Falling Down levels of disdain for service workers, but more sexual.
Relevant section starts at about 9:30: Santa is most likely not coming this year and Elfy is dead
Damn, surprised this is a van Gogh. This image was pretty common on 4channel (there it is again) and I assumed it was recent. For something so incredibly old, it speaks to my soul. Same, skeleman.
I like this one, chill skelly having a smoke ^^ "He sits in the void, waiting to be let out"