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FRAMING INFORMATION
1st Art Gallery offers the option to receive your painting ready to hang or rolled in a tube.
Currently, for safety, we're able to ship framed paintings only up to a certain size. Once the maximum size is reached, the framing option is automatically disabled.
However, if you are interested in stretching or framing a painting larger than 24x36 inches (60x90 cm), please contact one of our customer success associates or let us know in your order notes. We will send you a catalog of our large framing styles and pricing options.
Unframed rolled canvas orders will arrive rolled inside a protective tube with an extra 1.5" white canvas on all sides so you can easily frame it locally.


Simultaneously his most morbid and humorous study, Van Gogh's Skull with Burning Cigarette is a tragic-comic masterpiece, and the high point of his work before his trip to Paris exposed him to the world of the Impressionists. The loss of his father in Spring 1885 made an indelible impression on the young Van Gogh, and by Autumn of the same year he had moved from his family home in Nueuen and was residing in the city of Antwerp.
Living a fraught bohemian existence, the artist consumed coffee, cigarettes, bread, alcohol and little else. He spent every waking hour and all available funds on the development of his style and skill. Always humble and eager to improve, and having only taken up painting four years previously, Van Gogh enrolled in the art academy in Antwerp. Instead of finding a hotbed of new ideas, the artist found a traditional and deeply conservative academy applying the reproduction of the antiquated techniques of the old masters.
Hoping to be given the opportunity to utilize the academy's live models, Van Gogh was dismayed to find the class studying the depiction of the human anatomy through the painterly reproduction of skeleton subjects. While clearly a macabre comment on the increasingly gaunt face he saw in the mirror, the painting is also a sly and charismatic cold shoulder to the ways of the old school.
Marking a seismic shift in his style Skull with Burning Cigarette hints at the starkly expressive brush-strokes of his later works and foreshadows the frequent connections that later critics would make between the artist's subjects and his declining health. Resolute, resilience, and defiant in the face of the methods he felt had lost their relevance, Skull with Burning Cigarette is evidence of an artist with a clear and unwavering vision of the future.
Although Van Gogh learned about artistic techniques while in the academy, he felt the need to go against it and into something new. After having more contact with the Impressionists, Pointillists, and other modern artists, he was able to identify with their way of working that ruptured from the Classic rules of the Academy. This enabled him to work freely, expressing himself and experimenting with unconventional color schemes, compositions, and themes. In Skull with Burning Cigarette, Van Gogh still hasn't let go of his dark color palette, influenced by former Dutch artists.
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Real Oil Paints, Real Brushes, Real Artists, Real Art. The Certificate of Authenticity which arrives with every painting provides an assurance and verifies the authenticity of the hand painted fine art reproduction you purchased. Each oil painting is created by hand using only the finest canvas and oil paints available.
Important Notes About Your Painting:
If you have any request to alter your reproduction of Skull With Burning Cigarette, you must email us after placing your order and we'll have an artist contact you. If you have another image of Skull With Burning Cigarette that you would like the artist to work from, please include it as an attachment. Otherwise, we will reproduce the above image for you exactly as it is.
- Ordered without a frame, it will be delivered in protective tube within 21-28 business days.
- When ordering the painting framed - allow additional 5-7 days for delivery. The painting will arrive ready to hang.
- Every painting is painted by an experienced artist.
- No printing or digital imaging techniques are used.
- 100% hand painted oil painting on artist grade canvas.
- Painting comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
- 365 days Money Back Guarantee.
- Enjoy Free Express Shipping.
- Hand crafted means unique to every owner. Each canvas reproduction may vary slightly in brush details due to the nature of being hand painted, so no two paintings are the same.
- For those customers who appreciate quality and want to own an artist's work as it was meant to be enjoyed we are here for you.

Free shipping is included in the price of the painting. Once the painting is ready and dry enough to ship, we will roll it and ship it in a sturdy cardboard tube.
We always ship express via courier to ensure your order reaches you as soon as possible - normally within three business days. The total delivery time from the moment you place your order until the package is delivered to your door is normally between three to four weeks.

If, in the unlikely event you were dissatisfied with the painting after reviewing it in person, it can be returned for a full refund for up to 365 days after delivery.
When you receive the painting; you are free to return it for more revisions or else for a full refund minus our actual shipping cost -- which is, on average, $35 per painting.

1st Art Gallery provides a full warranty covering manufacturing and material defects for paintings purchased from our website. The warranty covers damage for normal use. Damage caused by incidents such as accidents or inappropriate use are not covered.
Depending on the degree of damage to the warranted painting, it will either be repaired or replaced. This warranty service is provided free of charge.
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