Skeleton Artists

Skeletons are things we associate with death and darkness. Over the years there have been many ways that skeletons have been painted. One of the most original paintings of a skeleton made was by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert, the Netherlands on the 30th of March 1853. Van gogh left his studies at the age of fifteen and in 1869 joined the firm Groupil &Cie. a firm of art dealers. He was a great admirer of British writers George Eliot and Charles dickens, and also of British engravers this having inspired and influenced his later life as an artist. He became a teacher and was devoted to the church wanting also to become a clergyman. In 1880 he went to Brussels to study art and some of his earliest works were coal miners, he painted pictures of the potato famine. The biggest influence came in Paris. Van Gogh attended exhibitions of the impressionists including Degas, Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir but always remained faithful to his own unique style. Skeleton with the burning cigarette was most distinguished in the Antwerp period. It was thought that this painting was most probably painted from a skeleton hanging in an anatomy class while Vincent was studying art. Some interpret the work as being a statement of defiance against his faltering health.

R. Wayt Smith has been a freelance artist for over twenty years. He's worked for a variety of magazines, books and game companies and has had many one-man art shows. He's known for changing his artistic methods. He looks for different ways to convey the most powerful images.