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The potato eaters, 1885

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
  • Oil on Canvas, 82 X 114 cm
  • Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
    (Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
  • F 82

Van Gogh deliberately chose a composition which would challenge his growing prowess as a painter. And like the French master Jean-François Millet, Van Gogh wanted to be a true “peasant painter.”

This meant Van Gogh tried to paint his subjects with deep feeling, but without sentimentality. He spoke of them leading 'a way of life completely different from ours, from that of civilized people.' He strove to paint the faces, 'the color of a good, dusty potato, unpeeled naturally,' and to convey the idea that these people had 'used the same hands with which they now take food from the plate to dig the earth […] and had thus earned their meal honestly.'

More information about "The potato eaters"

The peasants' meal

Van Gogh’s subject, a peasant family at table, was not completely new. In 1882, a few years before Van Gogh’s Potato eaters, Jozef Israëls had painted Peasant family at table, now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum. Van Gogh was a great admirer of Israëls, a painter of peasants and fishermen whom he considered to be a sort of 'Dutch Millet.' He had seen Israëls’s picture, and had described it in a letter to Theo in March 1882. The picture doubtlessly inspired Van Gogh to make his own version of a peasant family enjoying a simple meal.
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