The Potato Eaters

Van Gogh painted the work “The Potato Eaters” in 1885 while in Nuenen in Holland, you can find reproduction paintings of The Potato Eaters at Art Reproductions. The painting depicts a number of peasants sitting around in the evening eating potatoes in the light of a small lamp. There has been no work done to beautify the scene or light up the mood. Rather, the depiction is thoroughly realistic and in some cases and people depicted are even ugly. This is completely in line with Van Goghs own thinking about this painting. As he wrote about it:

"You see, I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and — that they have thus honestly earned their food. I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why."
The Potato Eaters divert sharply from later Van Gogh works in its use of colors. The bright and bold use of colors that was to become Van Gogh’s trademark later is thus no apparent in this work.

Today, The Potato Eaters can be found at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.