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
- Provenance
- Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, at the beginning of May 1887; after Theo’s 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, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded on 21 July 1962 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; 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)
Arles, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Soleil Chaud, Soleil Tardif. Les modernes indomptés, 21 April 2018 - 28 October 2018
Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 15 July 2013 - 23 September 2013
Sendai, Miyagi Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 26 May 2013 - 8 July 2013
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 30 March 2013 - 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 2012 - 28 October 2012
Riehen, Fondation Beyeler, Expressiv!, 30 March 2003 - 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
Bice Curiger, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Jacqueline Burckhardt... [et al.], L' automne du paradis = The autumn of paradise : Jean-Luc Mylayne, 2018, p. 40, 127
Jan Hulsker, The complete Van Gogh : paintings, drawings, sketches, 1980, p. 300, 303
The complete works of Vincent van Gogh, 1978, vol. 1, pl. 127
Juleke van Lindert, Evert van Uitert, Een eigentijdse expressie : Vincent van Gogh en zijn portretten, cop. 1990, p. 124
with essays by Donald Kuspit and Markus Brüderlin, Expressive!, 2003, p. 194-185
Ella Hendriks, C. Richard Johnson jr., Luuk van der Loeff ... [et al.], First international workshop on image processing for artist identification, 2007, p. 33, 55
Mariella Guzzoni, In viaggio con Vincent, 2010
Manuscript schilderijen Van Gogh catalogus J.-B. de la Faille 1939-1959, 1939-1959, p. 39
Jan Hulsker, The new complete Van Gogh : paintings, drawings, sketches, 1996, p. 288, 300, 302-303
Ed. by E. van Uitert and M. Hoyle; with contrib. from H. van Crimpen ... [et al.], The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, 1987, p. 337
Translation Ivonne Paternotte-Limburg, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh Amsterdam : guide to the collection of paintings, 1979, [unpaged]
Bice Curiger, Francesco Bonami, Marie-Laure Bernadac ... [et al.], Soleil chaud, soleil tardif : les modernes indomptés = Hot sun, late sun : modernism untamed, 2018, p. 92, 223
Ella Hendriks and Muriel Geldof, Van Gogh's Antwerp and Paris picture supports (1885-1888) reconstructing choices, p. 50-51, 53, 66
Ed. by Marije Vellekoop, Ella Hendriks, Leo Jansen ... [et al.] ; Teio Meedendorp, Nienke Bakker, Maite van Dijk ... [et al.], Van Gogh's studio practice, 2013, p. 158, 211, 213, 315, 319
Ed. by Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp ; Exh. and catalog by: Michael Philipp ; With contrib. by: Sjraar van Heugten, Valerie Hortolani, Stefan Koldehoff... [et al.], Van Gogh : still lifes, 2019, p. 35, 212
Ella Hendriks and Louis van Tilborgh ; with the assistance of Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Muriel Geldof, Monique Hageman ... [et al.], Van Gogh in Paris : a dialogue with Modernism, 2012, p. 162-163
Ella Hendriks and Louis van Tilborgh ; with the assistance of Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Muriel Geldof, Monique Hageman ... [et al.], Van Gogh in Paris : new perspectives, 2012, p. 92
Ronald de Leeuw, Van Gogh Museum : schilderijen en pastels, 1993, p. 173
By J.B. de la Faille ; foreword by Charles Terrasse ; translated from the French by Prudence Montagu-Pollock, Vincent van Gogh, 1939, p. 292
Vorwort von J.B. de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh : Gemälde, 1928, vol. 1, p. 85, vol. 2, pl. LXXXI
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Vincent van Gogh : his Paris period 1886-1888, 1976, p. 198, 231
Mark Edo Tralbaut, Vincent van Gogh in zijn Antwerpsche Periode, 1948, p. 228-230
Ella Hendriks, Louis van Tilborgh ; with the assistance of Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Monique Hageman ; transl. by Michael Hoyle, Vincent van Gogh paintings : volume 2 : Antwerp & Paris 1885-1888, 2011, p. 362-365
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Albert Aurier : the perception of life in death, p. 56
J.B. de la Faille ; bijdragen van Abraham M. Hammacher en Jan G. van Gelder ; vert. van het artikel van A.M. Hammacher James Brockway, The works of Vincent van Gogh : his paintings and drawings, 1970, p. 148-149, 623
