Potato Eaters by Van Gogh
Potato Eaters is a famous Vincent Van Gogh oil painting which is covered in full in this extensive article which aims to give you all you need to know about the Potato Eaters oil painting, including it's legacy and also to explain where it fits into Vincent Van Gogh's life and career.
A good question from those who study the works of Vincent Van Gogh and other impressionist and expressionist artists is why is Potato Eaters so famous when it has such drab colours and less than a positive outlook.
Quite simply, it represents the start of his career, and the first landmark achievement this it produced.
The colours and passion of impressionism were to come later, but the quality of his paintings had begun already, as the style he incorporated in the Potato Eaters was deliberately subdued and depressing in order to fully convey Vincent's view on the lives of those included in the work.
Van Gogh wanted to portray the difficulties in modern day Dutch life with this painting in a similar way to how Edvard Munch was to use expressionist techniques to cover tough times in Norway.
Whilst some would not be attracted to the immediately dark and moody feel of these works, true art followers and those who look into the meaning and history surrounding a painting would be interested enough to delve further.
Indeed whilst impressionism and post impressionism commonly use bright colours they basically stand for an emotional and personal depiction of a scene combining the artist's passions, similarly to romanticism, but that doesn't mean that they can't reflect more negative, honest feelings.
Van Gogh's career after the Potato Eaters quickly took pace, but his style moved on towards a brighter, more elaborate style which was to become what he is best known for today.
This later period was to bring oil paintings such as Wheatfield with Cypresses, Cypresses, Sunflowers, Dr Gachet, Starry Night, Night over the Rhone, Church at Auvers, Olive Trees, Olive Grove, Self-Portrait, Vincent's Bedroom, Chair with Pipe and many more which were to place him as the most important artist of the late 19th century.
A good question from those who study the works of Vincent Van Gogh and other impressionist and expressionist artists is why is Potato Eaters so famous when it has such drab colours and less than a positive outlook.
Quite simply, it represents the start of his career, and the first landmark achievement this it produced.
The colours and passion of impressionism were to come later, but the quality of his paintings had begun already, as the style he incorporated in the Potato Eaters was deliberately subdued and depressing in order to fully convey Vincent's view on the lives of those included in the work.
Van Gogh wanted to portray the difficulties in modern day Dutch life with this painting in a similar way to how Edvard Munch was to use expressionist techniques to cover tough times in Norway.
Whilst some would not be attracted to the immediately dark and moody feel of these works, true art followers and those who look into the meaning and history surrounding a painting would be interested enough to delve further.
Indeed whilst impressionism and post impressionism commonly use bright colours they basically stand for an emotional and personal depiction of a scene combining the artist's passions, similarly to romanticism, but that doesn't mean that they can't reflect more negative, honest feelings.
Van Gogh's career after the Potato Eaters quickly took pace, but his style moved on towards a brighter, more elaborate style which was to become what he is best known for today.
This later period was to bring oil paintings such as Wheatfield with Cypresses, Cypresses, Sunflowers, Dr Gachet, Starry Night, Night over the Rhone, Church at Auvers, Olive Trees, Olive Grove, Self-Portrait, Vincent's Bedroom, Chair with Pipe and many more which were to place him as the most important artist of the late 19th century.
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