The Potato Eaters: why Van Gogh placed five figures in the dark
The Van Gogh Museum displays the 1885 painting. Studies, colour choices and early criticism reveal the work behind this peasant meal.
The Potato Eaters is listed as “on display” on the Van Gogh Museum’s collection page. Vincent van Gogh painted the final canvas in Nuenen in April and May 1885. Measuring 82 by 114 centimetres, it shows five people around a simple meal. The museum describes it as a difficult composition with which Van Gogh wanted to test his abilities as a figure painter.
The subject was no accident. According to the museum, an everyday meal among farm workers was a familiar theme in painting at the time. Van Gogh chose seated figures because he had little experience painting people full length. He wanted to show the harshness of peasant life: rough faces and bony hands belonged, in his conception, to people who had earned their own food.
Two painted studies preceded the final work. The first showed four people; Van Gogh added a fifth in the second. The museum identifies the De Groot-van Rooij family as the models and says that Gordina is certainly depicted in the final painting.
The painting uses dark earth colours. Van Gogh used earth colours and, according to the museum, studied “broken tones”, mixtures of complementary colours. He hoped to create a colourful effect even in a dark painting. The dark paint later became a point of criticism: contemporaries found the work too sombre or thought the figures technically unconvincing.
The museum identifies several details of everyday life. The museum page identifies a clock on the left, a religious print beside it, and a clog holding cutlery near the fireplace. One museum story reads the clock as showing 7 pm, while another museum article distinguishes two mealtimes in Van Gogh’s imagined scene. The painting therefore cannot readily be reduced to one literal time of day.
Van Gogh made a lithograph before the painting was finished. Despite its initially critical reception, the museum now calls The Potato Eaters one of his most famous works.
For a visit to the Van Gogh Museum, its website lists €25 for adults; visitors under eighteen and Museumkaart holders enter free. Tickets are available online only, and everyone needs a ticket with a start time. The collection page lists The Potato Eaters as “on display”; check again shortly before travelling.