Vincent Van Gogh and The Potato Eaters

One of the greatest museums I have ever been to in this point in my life is the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Holland. I have always enjoyed viewing art, but never to the extent of this particular museum. I was truly fascinated with walking around to each painting and reading the stories, thoughts, and inspirations of Van Gogh throughout his professional career as an artist. One particular painting that I enjoyed was The Potato Eaters. Van Gogh prepared himself for years before he began this particular masterpiece. After a few years of painting Van Gogh realized that his skills were not enough to prove himself to the world through his vision of The Potato Eaters. Therefore, he began to paint still life pieces in order to practice using various color schemes together and simply handling the brush. Van Gogh also used subjects to practice facial features, but the people that would agree to sittings were mainly prostitutes. The paint he used, the canvases he painted on, and the people he used as subjects were all cheaper methods Van Gogh used to keep costs low.

Van Gogh moved closer to his masterpiece by practicing painting portraits of various peasants. His road to the final project makes the painting even more fascinating to me. His intention with The Potato Eaters was to produce a natural “peasant” setting where the images were not simply an imagination of the artist. “He wanted to stress the face that these people ‘have dug the earth with the very hands that they are putting in the dish and …that they have earned their food so honestly.’” Van Gogh did not intend to depict a cheerful setting where peasants sat around in an ideal sense. Rather, he depicted the life of peasants sitting around a table having a meal of merely potatoes, the only thing they could probably afford. Even though the colors he chose for The Potato Eaters are dark and dreary, I get a calming feeling from the painting. I feel saddened by the life of these peasants knowing that many others were living just like them all over the globe, however, Van Gogh was able to create a piece that many people today can view and become overwhelmed by its beauty.

After studying social and global inequality, this painting spoke out to me in a way that might not have before the course. It is no surprise that there are bourgeoisie and proletariat people in every society. There are those that hold power and those that work for those in power. The individuals who are the workers, work to feed the powerful their elaborate meals and cover their back with beautiful clothes. Looking further into the unfortunate inequalities all around, it saddens me that there are elite people everywhere that could aid those less fortunate. When I viewed The Potato Eaters I was able to see a group of proletariats in their natural setting, just like Van Gogh intended. The subjects in the painting were portrayed as drained, tired, and somewhat sad. Van Gogh did not try to hide anything; he showed the workers for who they are as a part of the inequality sector. They sat around the table and ate the potatoes they themselves grew and picked. While the elite down the street are sitting around an elaborate table with servants and a gourmet meals.