Why it matters
Van Gogh wanted The Potato Eaters to show that these peasants had 'tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish' and so honestly earned their food. Painted in Nuenen in the spring of 1885 in deliberately coarse, earthy tones, it is considered one of his masterpieces.
Did you know?
- He worked on it from 13 April until early May 1885.
- A first oil sketch of the composition is in the Kröller-Müller Museum.
- He wrote that a peasant painting may 'smell of bacon, smoke, potato steam'.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Potato Eaters (CC BY-SA 4.0).
