Van Gogh started his art career later in life, around 1880, after being an art dealer, teacher, assistant, and missionary. He was never a person who followed the rules – in both art and society.
Van Gogh once wrote to his sister, Wilhelmina, that he thought The Potato Eaters painting was “the best thing” he did. This painting became revered by the world and one of van Gogh’s most famous.
For van Gogh, it was important to portray peasants in their realness and truth, and he also explained to his brother that painting the lives of peasants is “serious”.
In The Potato Eaters, van Gogh depicts an interior setting where five people sit around a small square table. There is a light dangling from the ceiling in the center of the table.
The rest of the room around the figures is quite simple with what appears to have minimal items. The interior is also a small space, and the figures look cramped into their space.
Van Gogh painted the composition with dark colors. There is also only one light source illuminating the figures and the items on the table, which creates an interesting stylistic dynamic for the entire composition.
There are a lot of earthy tones in this composition – browns, blacks, and a general grayed space. Van Gogh mentioned how dark it was and that he did not really utilize a white color.
In The Potato Eaters, van Gogh utilizes expressive and loose brushstrokes. The composition is painted with an assortment of different thicknesses of brushstrokes, which create an overall unified space.
Van Gogh created several versions, or studies, of The Potato Eaters painting, namely the oil sketch at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands, a couple of other studies, and a lithograph.