Vincent van Gogh Paintings: "The Potato Eaters" Vincent van Gogh Paintings: "The Potato Eaters" Tweet Despite the modern demand for Vincent van Gogh paintings, the early years of van Gogh (1853-1890) offered nary a hint of his future popularity. Born in Groot-Zundert, Holland, and the son of a Calvinist pastor, he dropped out of school in 1869 to work for an art dealer; he was fired seven years later. He then spent two years as a lay preacher working with impoverished miners; he was denied ordination because he was considered "overly passionate" by Calvinist authorities. At the age of 27, he resolved to become an artist. Beginning at this juncture and for the rest of his life, Vincent van Gogh received emotional and financial support from his brother, Theo. Jean-Francois Millet, The Sower. Oil on canvas, 1850. 40" x 32.5". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

This included frequent letters between the two, providing not only insights into the specific intentions and contexts of Vincent van Gogh paintings, but also into Vincent's volatile mental health. From 1883 to 1885, he lived at his father's vicarage in Nuenen, Holland, where he created one of his most famous paintings, The Potato Eaters. The realistic art and peasant imagery of Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) was hugely influential as he conveyed in a letter to Theo: "While I was doing it I thought again about what has so rightly been said of Millet's peasants - ‘His peasants seem to have been painted with the soil they sow'". Van Gogh also admired Jozef Israels, a painter of fishermen and peasants whom he described to Theo as the "Dutch Millet". Jozef Israels, Peasant Family at Table. Oil on canvas, 1882. Approximately 28" x 41". Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Inspired by Millet's The Sower and Israels' Peasant Family at Table, Vincent created Potato Eaters, which echoes Israels' work of art. Van Gogh's painting, however, has darker hues, an impasto paint texture, and more influence from Rembrandt's tenebrism (a painting style employed by Caravaggio and followers in which a few objects are brightly lit while the majority are in heavy shadow). Its perspective is askew - look how abruptly the ceiling beams recede - and reveals van Gogh's technical naivete. Or is it genius? The Potato Eaters. Oil on canvas, 1885. Approximately 32" x 45". Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam The peasants' gnarled hands and fingers evince severe arthritic pain, while the folds and wrinkles in their tattered clothing seem to restrain some unwieldy, internal force. On the wall, the Crucifixion picture and clock seem poised to jump off the wall rather than to remain attached. This explosive energy is a heartfelt but unsentimental contrast to its solemnity and tranquility, in which these peasants have nothing but coffee and potatoes to eat after a physically taxing day.

He was pleased with Potato Eaters, writing to Theo that ...in contrast to a great many other paintings, it has rusticity and a certain life in it. And then, although it's done differently, in a different century from the old Dutchmen, Ostade, for instance, it's nevertheless out of the heart of peasant life and - original. Tragically, his painting career was intermittently interrupted by an unspecifiable mental illness; the physician who admitted him to a psychiatric hospital in 1888 noted that his patient had "acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing." His failure to achieve financial stability was profoundly troubling - in spite of the exclusivity of van Gogh artwork today, some art historians claim he sold only one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles, during his lifetime; further, he had no patrons, and he was forced to remain financially dependent on Theo. Art historians have long claimed that Vincent died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1890, in spite of having recently received a postive review from the art critic Alberet Aurier .

That dismal demise may not be true: a new book written by two Pulitzer Prize winners, Van Gogh: The Life (Smith and Naifeh), makes a convincing case that Vincent was shot by local teenagers. Red Vineyard in Arles. Oil on canvas, 1888. Pushkin Museum. What is certain is that his impact on art history is incalcuabale. After painting for only one decade, we have 1000 van Gogh paintings - of which 70 were made in his final 70 days. Even with his abreviated life, poverty and mental illness, Vincent inspired Fauvists, Expressionists and legions of famous painters including Gauguin (1848 - 1903), Matisse (1869 - 1854), Maurice Vlaminck (1876 - 1958), Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876 - 1907), and Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992). Van Gogh paintings are some of the most cherished (and expensive) in the history of painting - that's one thing about him that remains certain.

Other Resources Explore the complete collection of van Gogh letters written to, and received from, Theo, and letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to famous painters and friends like Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard. Are you a fan of famous paintings? So are the folks at Masterpiece Cards. We took 23 leading art history books (some 17,000 pages!) and researched which painters and paintings were talked about most during the six centuries covered. From the opinions of these 40 art historians, we selected the top 250 famous paintings and made them into a set of information-packed Cards. Explore them! The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh Terminos de Busqueda de Google Vincent van Gogh: The Potato Eaters A Brief Understanding of The Potato Eaters Painting. The Potato Eaters, completed in 1885, is considered by many to be Van Gogh's first great work of art. At the time of its creation, Van Gogh had only recently started painting and had not yet mastered the techniques that would later make him famous. This could attribute to the interesting look of the piece as well as the overall feeling produced from the painting.

Van Gogh wished to create his first masterpiece that could boost his reputation as a developed artist; his goal was to paint human figures that did not appear to be awkward, but rather existing naturally. Portraying the figures in a dark room with light from an oil lamp, however, proved to be a bit too extreme for his newly acquired artistic skills. The outcome of all of these factors, in turn, made the painting more appreciated in the art community then if Van Gogh had succeeded in his original task. The painting that was completed consisted of 5 figures sitting around a square table eating potatoes; four of them are females and one male. Although the piece is laced in darkness, the mixed emotions residing in the faces of the occupants shine out brightly. These figures are so intense that one can nearly hear the conversations being spoken around the table. Perhaps this vibrancy layered with the darkness is what draws one closer to examine the smaller details of the painting. These details include but are not limited to: The rafter boards in the back of the piece. The soft gentle lines forming a window in the darkness. The picture frame hung on a darkened wall. The large platter of potatoes, and the boney fingers stretched out to obtain them.

The woman pouring a brew similar to coffee. The large rectangular column behind the table that seems to hold the building up. The weathered edges of the table. These subtle aspects create the illusion that the building is an actual residence for the five figures. This portrayal of ordinary peasant life did not come in a burst of creativity; Van Gogh had planned out the painting of The Potato Eaters far in advance, and had inspiration to create a multiple figure painting as far back as 1883. After completing various sketches and trial paintings of the piece, Van Gogh sent reversed lithograph prints to two art dealers of the time and one of his fellow colleagues, while still planning to create a final draft of the sketch in paint. Van Gogh soon developed a sense of confidence that his finished painting would become an accurate interpretation of what he saw it as. Gogh began to advertise his finished painting before he had even begun it. Never the less The Potato Eaters failed to become the painting he had set his mind to. It was not successful in his life time, nor was it displayed in Salon as Gogh had requested.

Today the piece has reached great heights in the artistic community as well as being considered his first masterpiece, which is what he had intended it to be. The Vincent van Gogh Gallery's Potato Eaters Resource: Potato Eater Downloads: The potato eaters - Google Arts & Culture The potato eaters The Kröller-Müller Museum "The potato eaters' shows a peasant family partaking of their evening meal by the scanty light of an oil lamp. The painting is built up of wide, coarse brushstrokes. While paying little attention to detail, Van Gogh emphasises the light-dark effects all the more. The outer surrounding area of the painting, which is built up of darker tints, contrasts sharply with the areas lit by the oil lamp, the only light source in the work. Vincent van Gogh began painting peasant scenes during his three-month stay in Drenthe in 1883. After that he moved in with his parents in Nuenen in Brabant, where he produced more than a hundred portrait studies of local farm labourers. These studies were the prelude to a large painting dealing with the life of Brabant peasants: 'The potato eaters'.

In early April 1885 he wrote to Theo of his plans 'to start this week on the business of those peasants sitting round the dish of potatoes in the evening'. 'The potato eaters' is undoubtedly the most ambitious painting from Van Gogh's Dutch period. Before starting on the definitive painting he made several drawings and two painted studies. He did this on the spot in the home of the De Groot-van Rooij family, the family who modelled for him. It was not Van Gogh's intention to portray them exactly. What he was concerned about was conveying the atmosphere and primitiveness of peasant life. The copy in the Kröller-Müller Museum is the second study made by Van Gogh. Van Gogh painted the definitive version of 'The potato eaters' in his studio.

This work can be admired in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam." Read more The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh (1885) | Culture | The Guardian The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh (1885) Friday 10 January 2003 20.02 EST First published on Friday 10 January 2003 20.02 EST · All articles in this series Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a social radical whose encounter with impressionism through his art dealer brother Theo enabled him to create an art at once sensual and compassionate. His genius was literary as well as visual (his letters constitute one of the greatest 19th-century novels) and, prior to his going to Paris in 1886, his idea of himself as an artist was formed as much by his reading of socially critical authors, especially Charles Dickens and George Eliot, as by his reverence for the rural painter Millet.

Teaching himself to draw and paint while living a marginal life in Holland, he rejected the bourgeois art of portraiture and romantic narrative in favour of a raw scrutiny of nature and of peasants scratching a living from the hard cold ground. On the eve of his discovering impressionism, Van Gogh saw himself as a painter of peasant life - a simple-hearted, popular alternative to the urban painter-flaneur whom Baudelaire characterised as the painter of modern life. "By continually observing peasant life, at all hours of the day," he wrote to Theo, "I have become so involved in it that I rarely think of anything else." Subject: This painting grew out of the portrait studies of peasants that Van Gogh made around Nuenen. Distinguishing features: Their faces and hands are big, gnarled, earthy, as if they had been made out of the ground they dig. Their simple supper is sacramental; they are grave, intent and somehow excited, as if they get more pleasure and social communion from this meal of potatoes and coffee than the rich man takes from his exquisite feast. The young woman's eyes looking at, presumably, her husband are extraordinary.

There's adoration in them; for all their back-breaking toil, Van Gogh implies, these people are sexually alive. There's a bond, too, between the older couple to the right. The girl with her back to us completes the circle around the table. Above everything is the cartoonish red and yellow flame of the oil lamp creating a pool of warmth within the cavernous, mineral-grey space that represents night, terror, the cold world. For all their community, these people are aware of the harshness of their lives; the man on the left is lost in thought, as is the woman pouring coffee. They might be thinking of injustice. The Potato Eaters is Van Gogh's first ambitious painting, in which he synthesises his ideas about art and society: he conceived it as a painting not only of peasants, but for peasants. And yet Van Gogh was never a prosaic realist; he had a charged sense of painting as visual ecstasy. In his letter to Theo explaining this painting, he elaborates his theory of colour, comparing his scintillating combinations to the ones weavers use. Van Gogh never abandoned his belief in a humble art.

The rustic aesthetic he imposed on The Yellow House in Arles belongs recognisably to the same world as The Potato Eaters. Look at the wooden straw-seated chair of the peasant on the far left: it is the kind immortalised by his 1888 painting Van Gogh's Chair. Inspirations and influences: The dark setting and spiritual depth of this painting evoke one of Van Gogh's favourite artists, Rembrandt. Where is it? Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Vincent van Gogh: Visitor Submissions The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh By Louis van Tilborgh The Van Gogh Museum The painting Van Gogh made in 1885 was his first attempt to produce a masterwork which would establish his reputation. Having barely mastered the art of painting, the task he set himself was virtually beyond his reach. Portraying five figures and making them look natural is impossible for an unpracticed hand, while achieving the effects of light cast by an oil lamp made the project even more difficult. His use of colour was no less ambitious, for he wanted to render a gloomy interior as brightly as possible. Van Gogh had made preparations well in advance.

He produced numerous portrait studies and several composition sketches in charcoal and oil before tackling the definitive canvas. The Potato Eaters is the deliberate attempt of an eager young artist to prove himself to the world after five years of study. Intent on producing a mature figure piece, Van Gogh had resigned himself to the fact that his first test of strength in his ambitious genre would not be without imperfections. Even in 1883, during his time in The Hague, when he had barely mastered the rudiments of painting, Vincent was hoping to produce a figure piece that would proclaim his talent to colleagues, connoisseurs and dealers. The Potato Diggers, which he started in August of that year, marked his first attempt at a large composition. But his desire to make an impression proved greater than his skill, for he abandoned the project after making the first rough sketch. In Nuenen, too, where he settled at the end of 1883, the goal of creating a mature composition with several figures continued to elude him, his only works with more than one figure were the large designs he was commissioned to make for the dining room of his friend Hermans.

He had photographs taken of some of these sketches but seems to have been not satisfied with his efforts. In any event, nothing came of his plans to work the sketches into finished paintings (462, 377). His courage appears to have failed him, and the fact that he confined himself to a design with two or three figures instead of the five or six that Hermans had wanted reflects the way Van Gogh himself rated his artistic capabilities at the time (460, R48). Although he still lacked confidence in his ability to compose figure pieces, he was generally more satisfied with his studies from life. Hoping to augment his meagre income, he even contemplated "shaving [his] work, launching it in public", as he wrote in February, 1884 (430; 360). He consulted his brother on the matter, only to discover to his anger and disappointment that Theo was less than enthusiastic about the quality of his recent work. Moreover, his brother was merely a junior at the influential Goupil & Co., and as such had reservations about promoting Vincent's still immature work. Vincent's painting continued to improve in the course of 1884.

His palette became "more solid and more precise" and his technique increasingly personal. He therefore found it all the more difficult to accept his brother's rebuffs (470; 384). Without Theo's help he had little chance of making a successful entrï¿½e into the art market. He sent him photographs of his recent figure pieces, and wrote several letters complaining that financial help without moral support was useless, and indeed downright cruel. Theo then went to the opposite extreme, for at the beginning of March 1885, he asked the astonished Vincent whether he had any work to submit for the Paris Salon that year (488; 395). He had grown weary of Vincent's constant complaints, and was probably hoping to salvage their rapidly deteriorating relationship. Their interests conflicted, however, and his proposal to enter Vincent's best works for the Salon was in fact a subtle and tactful compromise. It gave Vincent an opportunity to prove himself, without Theo having to risk his good name at Goupil's. All he had to do was submit the work; the rest was up to the jury of the Salon.

Eager as he was to embark on his true career and grateful for Theo's encouragement, Vincent nevertheless felt he had nothing worth sending. But the gesture had restored his self-confidence, and he wrote back shortly afterwards, intimating that the portrait studies he had been working on during the past few months were to culminate in an ambitious, structured composition. "As far as I am concerned, I cannot show a single painting yet, nor even a single drawing. But I do make studies, so I can well imagine that the time will come when I will also be able to make compositions. And besides, it is difficult to say where the study ends and the actual painting begins. I am considering a few worked out pieces [ ] like figures against the light of a window, for instance" (489; 396). Studies Vincent must have made the first sketches for his "peasants around a platter of potatoes" soon after writing this letter (493; 398). Shortly after embarking on the project he sent Theo an example, probably a small, spontaneous oil sketch of the composition.

Although the exact date on which he sent it was uncertain, he was evidently working on the subject before his father's death on 26 March, as we can deduce from their correspondence that Theo had seen an early proof of the peasant family eating potatoes before leaving Paris for the funeral (493; 398). Early in April, Van Gogh resumed his work on the motif of the peasant meal; "Whether or not this succeeds," he announced, "I am going to start on the studies for each of these figures"" (493; 398). In the space of three days, some time between about 6 and 13 April, he made the large study which is now at the Krï¿½ller-Mï¿½ller Museum in Otterlo. He enclosed a sketch of the composition in one of his letters to Theo, and sent him a second, quick "scribble" once it was finished (496; 400). His first uninhibited oil sketch seems to be a faithful representation of the scene to real life. In the new work, however, he altered the composition and added a fifth figure to the original four.

At the same time, he introduced a new theme by showing the group drinking coffee, or, more accurately, a brew made from chicory. Like the oil sketch, the second sketch is primarily a study in clair-obscur, although the paint has been applied roughly and with little definition. "I have not been able to work it out as well as I intended", Vincent confessed in a letter to his brother (496; 400). The second sketch was made inside the peasant cottage, and Van Gogh felt that he had managed to capture the vitality he wanted in a study from life. He was justifiably proud of his first attempt at a structured composition. "At the point which I have now reached", he explained to his brother, "I should be able to give a true impression of what I see". Despite its defects he continued, the work had 'a certain life in it" (495; 399 AND 497; 401). Though Vincent had made progress since his slightly contrived, academic sketches for Herman's dining room, the real test of his strength still lay ahead.

He had yet to master the difficult task of working a sketch into a fully-fledged painting, a true tableau., polished in the studio without losing the freshness of the first impression from life. As soon as the second sketch was finished, he made a lithograph of it in reverse. He sent a number of prints to Theo (with explicit instructions to forward several to the Parisian art dealer Portier) and to his colleague Anthon van Rappard. Some time later he also sent a few to the Amsterdam dealer Van Wisselingh. His decision to do so is hard to explain. Proud though he was of the result he had achieved, it made little sense to send reproductions of a study whilst he was still planning to make a final version of the piece. The lithograph was evidently not meant to proclaim the accomplishment of the sketch, but to announce that the final painting was soon to follow. Flushed with triumph, he decided to advertise the masterwork he had not even begun. The letter to Theo which accompanied the lithographs optimistically predicted that the final work 'would perhaps be one that Portier could display, or that we could send to an exhibition' (497,401).

At some point between 13 April and the beginning of May, Van Gogh completed the 'actual' painting. He used an even larger canvas, and referred to it as The Potato Eaters (501, 404). Unlike the sketch, it was not painted directly from life, but at the Nuenen home of the sexton Schafrat, where Van Gogh had his studio. He rendered it 'mainly from memory', for in the best academic tradition, the budding artist wanted to demonstrate that, besides being able to make a faithful reproduction of what he say, he possessed the rare gift of imagination (501; 404). He only used studies for the faces, and returned to the cottage on an evening to touch up 'a few bits on the spot'. At the end of April, Van Gogh took The Potato Eaters to his friend Kerssemakers in Eindhoven. Using a fine brush, he made a few changes to the work between about 2 and 4 May (501; 404). He then too the canvas back to Nuenen, and worked on it once more with the same type of brush.

He was apparently struggling to achieve a technically competent piece without detracting from its spontaneity, for he returned to the cottage yet again and retouched the canvas 'from life' (502; 405). At this point, desperately anxious to hear Theo's opinion, he abandoned his plan to make a lithograph after the new piece and, on 6 May, packed the barely dry canvas in a flat crate and dispatched it to his brother (504; 407). Criticism The project that Vincent had pinned his hopes on proved less successful than he had anticipated. The Potato Eaters was not exhibited at the Salon, nor did Theo show it to the influential art dealer Durand-Ruel, as Vincent had impulsively requested (501; 404). The only people who are known to have seen it are Theo's neighbour, Alphonse Portier, an enthusiastic rather than successful art dealer in Impressionist work, and an older artist friend, Charles Serret.

According to Kerssemakers, an acquaintance of Vincent's from Eindhoven, Theo took a favourable view of the piece, for 'a few days after sending that sombre painting [ ] to his brother in Paris, he [Vincent] told me in great excitement that his brother had written about it in the most favourable terms, and he was naturally filled with delight. His brother had said that just by looking at the painting one could hear the clogs of the sittings clacking together, which was of course grist to his mill'. Yet all that emerges from Vincent's correspondence is that Theo made a number of critical remarks and thought the torsos of the figures worse than the heads (522; 418). Serret and Portier cared little for the murky tone and colours, which were indeed unusually dark by French standards. 'Yet I am content', Vincent wrote, 'that they nevertheless saw some merit in it' (509; 410). The response from Paris was critical rather than complimentary, but Vincent was feeling quite confident. Though his high expectations had not been met, the enterprise was not a complete failure. As Theo later wrote to his mother, Serret has described Vincent's works as immature but promising.

In another letter he continued: 'Painters in particular consider it promising. Some see beauty in it, precisely because the characters are so genuine. For it is true that toil and poverty have left their mark on most of the peasants in Brabant, and their faces are hard rather than pleasing'. Such remarks strengthened Vincent's faith in both his artistic and financial prospects. He had already taken the first steps towards establishing contacts in the art market, and now simply needed to consolidate them, certain that it would 'not be very long before we can show more important things.' (522; 418). The only thing that marred his optimism about the future was the relentless criticism from his friend Van Rappard, whose withering response has become almost legendary. 'You will agree that such work is not serious. You can do better than this--fortunately. But then why have you observed and treated everything so superficially? Why didn't you study the movements? They look so posed. That genteel hand of the woman in the back is completely unrealistic! And what connection is there between the coffee kettle, the table and the hand lying on top of the coffee pot?

[ ] And you dare to invoke the names of Millet and Breton in connection with such work? Art is too lofty, I think, to be treated so lightly.' (529; R57). In short, the commitment it expressed was more important than the way it was rendered. Vincent's views on what art could achieve were coloured by the naï¿½ve and rather bookish notions of his religious past, and even after deciding to make a career in painting, he tended not to distinguish between art and literature. Although he took paints to improve his skills, he continued to attach little importance to technique throughout his time in Holland.

In his own words, the true purpose of a painting was to 'inspire [people] to feel or think' (503; 406) and it was for this reason that he rose to the defence of Jozef Israï¿½ls Alone in the World and Past Mother's Grave (Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum) after a visit to Amsterdam in early October 1885: 'Let them prattle on about technique as much as they like in their pharisaic, hollow, hypocritical terms--true painters are guided by the consciousness known as sentiment. Their souls, their minds are not their for the brush, the brush is there for their minds' (537; 426). His overriding aim was to express the human spirit. Van Gogh had previously attempted to do so in figure drawings such as The Bearers of the Burdern, Worm Out and At Eternity's Gate, but The Potato Eaters was the first painting in which he sought to achieve this. Although he did not give it a similarly anecdotal or explanatory title, his portrayal of a peasant meal was designed to evoke the same type of emotional response to the human condition.

To his way of thinking, the artistic value of the canvas lay not in its technical quality, but in the sincerity and fervour of his commitment. This explains his unmitigated rage at the criticism levelled by Van Rappard, for he felt that his friend had missed the point and had failed to understand him. Physiognomy Van Gogh explained his views on the painting in a letter to Theo. 'I wanted to convey the idea that the people eating potatoes by the light of an oil lamp used the same hands with which they take food from the plate to work the land, that they have toiled with their hands--that they have earned their food by honest means' (501; 404). This idea may have been inspired by a well-known passage in Jean de La Bruyï¿½re's Les caractï¿½res de Thï¿½ophraste of 1688, describing the characters of various human 'types'. Van Gogh had not read the original, but knew the passage from Alfred Sensier's La vie et l'oeuvre de J.F. Millet.

Sensier had quoted the excerpt with reference to Millet's Man with the Hoe, which he saw as a representation of 'the shocking passage from La Bruyï¿½re: 'One sees a kind of wild animal, male and female, all over the countryside, black, drab and scorched by the sun, bound to the soil which they dig and work with obstinate resolve; they speak with a single voice, and when they rise to their feet they reveal human faces, and they are indeed human. At night they retreat into caves where they live on black bread, water and roots; they spare others the effort of sowing, tilling and harvesting in order to live, and should therefore not want of the bread they have sown'. In contrast to Millet's Man with the Hoe, Van Gogh's Potato Eaters is an attempt to breathe life into the peasants' untamed expressions within the setting of their own homes. Their baseness, their feral nature, was crucial to the picture's meaning, which is what Van Gogh was trying to convey when he described the canvas as a 'real peasant painting'. 'But if people prefer to see them with a sugar coating, let them.

I personally believe that it is better in the long run to paint them vulgar as they are than to give them a conventional charm' (501; 404). Van Gogh wanted to express that lack of refinement not only in the hands, roughened by work, but even more in the faces, as Millet had done. According to Sensier Millet had in later life been preoccupied with 'the study of human types, the significance of physiognomy'. He was struck by the 'ugliness' of country people and 'did not shrink from depicting coarse-looking faces in his rustic compositions, unrefined, or at best uncultivated figures, whose expressions seem to affirm that human beings are not always superior to animals'. Gross, brutish, coarse and ugly. This is how Van Gogh wanted to portray his Brabant peasants. As a friend once observed, he made a point of selecting 'the ugliest of them as models'. In Nuenen he had portrayed a woman with the expression of 'a lowing cow' (509; 410).

He sought out models with 'coarse, flat faces, with low foreheads and thick lips, not sharp ones, but full and Millet-ish' (454; 372), corresponding to the stereotypes he had read about in the theories of Gall and Lavater. In their view, fleshy lips betrayed 'a high degree of coarseness and an element of cunning', while in combination with prominent cheekbones, they were characteristic of the prototypical African, 'a person devoid of intelligence'. A flat face, 'the upper half almost entirely without curves', and a low brow were the signs of a 'stupidity stemming from obduracy, with very little sensitivity'. These features--thick lips, protruding cheekbones and low, flat foreheads--can be seen in all Van Gogh's portraits of peasants, as well as in the figures of The Potato Eaters. Their mouths and cheekbones are exaggerated. The woman on the right in the painting and the man on the left with the flat brow and protruding ears, are little more than grotesque caricatures.

Other striking features are the wide-open eyes of the two figures on the left, both of whom also appear in Van Gogh's individual portraits of country peasants. The enormous eyes were presumably intended to convey 'the extremes of the animal ( ) eye; they are incapable of expression except for the occasional look of surprise, devoid of intelligence. It is impossible to reading anything else in them; such eyes never betray a single thought'. This emphasis on the feral nature of the characters in The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh insisted, was not intended to malign them. He simply saw them as typical of country people. In short, the painting was an attempt to portray peasants at their purest and most primitive, as representing the ancient, traditional values of rural life. Like animals, they lived in harmony with their unspoiled, natural environment, and it was this that Van Gogh admired. Louis van Tilborgh This article has been reproduced with the kind permission of Waanders Publishers Zwolle, Louis van Tilborgh and the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam). Vincent Van Gogh The Potato Eaters Painting Reproduction Art On Canvas How To Order A Frame?

Select the frame types you desire: Museum Ornate, Modern Classic, Traditional, Cream / White Scroll to find the frame you like and select the size to fit your painting, then Add To Cart Please Note: You need to add the painting to Cart as well as add the frame to Cart Due to shipping restriction, not all frame sizes are available for purchase To estimate the final frame dimensions, add frame width around painting size Related Articles: - Vincent Van Gogh Painting Style and Techniques Vincent Van Gogh The Potato Eaters Vincent van Gogh, an artist of the mid-19th century, created masterpieces that are still appreciated today by art lovers around the world. His paintings are much sought after, but most are privately owned or on display in world-famous museums. The simplicity of life on which he focused his work is never more apparent than in his masterpiece, The Potato Eaters, completed in 1885. One of Vincent van Gogh's early works, the painting consists of only five figures seated around a table in an humble abode. They appear to be poverty-stricken farmers enjoying a meal of only potatoes and coffee.

However, it is the emotion that the master artist captured in the faces of the three women and one man that leave the art lover with an appreciation of Van Gogh's early talent. The fifth figure, that of a young girl, is seen only from the back. The Potato Eaters is considered the first of Van Gogh's masterpieces , and rightfully so. The peasant life of this group depicts life's hard times, but the emotion that is caught on their faces leaves you with the ability to imagine the conversation being carried on among them. The interpretation of what Van Gogh was intending is made clear as you look at the humble room where the group is seated. There are only four chairs at this small table, which causes the child to be left standing. The large platter of potatoes indicates there was plenty of them to be had, and the coffeepot beside the table indicates that there may be more waiting to be served. You wonder if this group is a family. With only one man, he appears to be in a serious mood, and probably the head of this household. The woman next to him appears to have great admiration in her eyes, possible listening to his every word.

The woman in the middle is offering a potato to the third woman, who is serving the coffee. The looks they depict are quite different, indicating totally different moods. They all eat from the same platter. Their hands are worn and tired, possibly after a long day's work. There are four cups being served on the table, which causes you to wonder whether the child is eating with the rest of the group. Dressed in long sleeves, caps, and wraps, the weather could be cold. The oil lamp hanging above the table is the only light holding back the darkness outside. The walls are decorated meagerly, indicating possessions were few. A picture hanging on the wall is accompanied by little else besides basic necessities. Vincent van Gogh prepared early drafts of The Potato Eaters, having art dealers examine them in hopes that the painting would be considered for display. However, it was not as successful as he had planned. Today, art lovers worldwide consider it his first masterpiece. Vincent van Gogh committed suicide in 1890, and sadly, never saw the masterpiece he had created only five years earlier taken to great heights of success where it rightfully belongs.

Other Beautiful Oil Paintings We Recommend The Potato Eaters Giclee Print by Vincent van Gogh at AllPosters.com About the Artist Customer Reviews The brilliant artwork of post-Impressionist Dutch Master Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) powerfully impacted countless artistic movements. Producing all of his works within a decade, Van Gogh’s output in just one year totaled 150 paintings and drawings. Van Gogh painted outdoors with a special talent for capturing the subtleties of nighttime light and shadow. He suffered from lifelong bouts with mental illness yet created many of his masterpieces while institutionalized. Selling only one painting during his lifetime, Van Gogh has endured as one of the last century’s most influential artists. Average Customer Rating The Potato Eaters | artble.com The Potato Eaters Vincent van Gogh Page Menu Selected Page The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh – Facts about the Painting Outskirts of Paris , 1887 The Potato Eaters, which was completed in 1885, was considered to be van Gogh’s first real piece of great work which led to many other pieces that followed.

When the painting was done, van Gogh was still new to the art world, and had not yet mastered his own style–the use of colors and lighting that he became so well known for. In turn, the lack of character and his own style led to a unique and interesting look of The Potato Eaters. Details of the Painting Van Gogh created many simplistic details in The Potato Eaters, which when viewed together, created the work of art that many love. Some of the details he took in to account when creating the piece include: – rafter boards that are in the back of the piece – soft and gentle lines which form the window borders in the piece – the picture frame that is seen hanging on the wall – a larger platter of potatoes – the woman who is pouring coffee to the seated men – weathered and damaged edges to the table – a large rectangular column that is found behind the table and seems to be holding the entire structure up and in place when it is viewed as a whole. The subtle details that are created in The Potato Eaters, not only give it character and a unique look, they also lead viewers’ to have the impression that the room is a home or place of residence for the men in the image.

It is a display of peasant life and the way these individuals used to live during the time period: in tight quarters, with limited food and drink, and other amenities that might have been available to them during that time period. Leave a Reply

Question: Which artist painted The Potato Eaters?
Answer: Vincent Van Gogh