Illustration
An 1885 oil on canvas painting, The Potato Eaters, by Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), the Dutch post-impressionist artist. Painted in Neunen, Netherlands. Van Gogh created this work by combining various earlier studies of individuals, hence their rather isolated nature. The artist has given the figures contoured faces and hands – picked out by the light from the single lamp – which remind of the bowl of potatoes they are eating from. The work was not well-received by dealers or fellow artists, but van Gogh thought highly of it, even producing a reworking of it in the last year of his life. He described his purpose in the painting in a letter to his brother Theo:
I have tried to emphasize that those people, eating their potatoes in the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour, and how they have honestly earned their food. (LT 370)
(Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
License & Copyright
Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.
Original image by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 16 March 2022. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Public Domain. This item is in the public domain, and can be used, copied, and modified without any restrictions. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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Portrait of Père Tanguy by van Gogh
Cite This Work
APA Style
Amsterdam, V. G. M. (2022, March 16). The Potato Eaters by van Gogh. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15462/the-potato-eaters-by-van-gogh/
Chicago Style
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum,. "The Potato Eaters by van Gogh." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 16, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15462/the-potato-eaters-by-van-gogh/.
MLA Style
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum,. "The Potato Eaters by van Gogh." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 16 Mar 2022. Web. 19 Apr 2024.
