Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh began painting approximately 10 years prior to his suicide at age 37. His short life was marked by strong humanitarian impulses toward the poor, especially miners, weavers, and peasants. Despite his intentions, the poor often ridiculed his efforts. Failures in his personal life and sickness led to despair. Unable to support himself regularly, he lived off his younger brother Theo. Bouts of epilepsy worsened his depression. Although tragic, these experiences enabled Van Gogh to depict the social circumstances and psychological moods of the people who interested him as can been seen in the 1885 painting The Potato Eaters (you can see a larger version of the painting by clicking here), which depicts the social and psychological circumstances of people who became dependent on potatoes. After studying the painting, I would like you all to discuss the following: What features of the painting reveal the social circumstances of the people who became dependent on potatoes as their staple food? How do their circumstances compare with the views of thinkers who had earlier praised the potato? How does the painting suggest the inner mood of the individuals depicted? How might Van Gogh define the purpose of this kind of art in industrial Europe? Your thoughts…
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Potato Eaters
Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh began painting approximately 10 years prior to his suicide at age 37. His short life was marked by strong humanitarian impulses toward the poor, especially miners, weavers, and peasants. Despite his intentions, the poor often ridiculed his efforts. Failures in his personal life and sickness led to despair. Unable to support himself regularly, he lived off his younger brother Theo. Bouts of epilepsy worsened his depression. Although tragic, these experiences enabled Van Gogh to depict the social circumstances and psychological moods of the people who interested him as can been seen in the 1885 painting The Potato Eaters (you can see a larger version of the painting by clicking here), which depicts the social and psychological circumstances of people who became dependent on potatoes. After studying the painting, I would like you all to discuss the following: What features of the painting reveal the social circumstances of the people who became dependent on potatoes as their staple food? How do their circumstances compare with the views of thinkers who had earlier praised the potato? How does the painting suggest the inner mood of the individuals depicted? How might Van Gogh define the purpose of this kind of art in industrial Europe? Your thoughts…
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The people look very unhappy and tired. The dark colors emphasise this more. The girl on the right staring at you is kind of creepy. It seems like she's glaring at the painter for interupting her life
The one thing i noticed were their hands.....very bony and skinny. I guess potatoes are just like any food, it doesnt matter how good it is for u, if u have too much it will always have negative affect. They still look hungry, poor and scary.....so much for the potato.
This picture shows the lower class's and the poor's everyday lifestyle at this time. The people who ate potatos were shown as people who cannot support their lives( the dim light (one oil lamp) and old-looking small room). This is ironic because in the Americas (where potatos came from), and especially in the Incan region, potato was the staple crop of the empire, but when it moved to Europe, by Gogh's picture, it seems like people were unappreciative of it (even though it fed them, keeping them alive) and thought of it as "poor people food." Those kind of thoughts probably influenced this picture.
judging by the ratty clothes and the dark, bare look of the home, it is evident that peasants and the lower classes relied on potatoes for food, so the crop must have been in great abundance and been cheap. the mood of the people seems to be somber, like they have boring lives and like their kids would be saying "aww mom, potatoes again?!" or something like that :)
Socially, it seems like the potato seperates the poor from the rich..from the painting you can tell how dependent the people are on potato, they r depicted as bony and dark (feeling wise) looking.
I think the people looked really scary. They also seem to live in poverty. Without the potato im pretty sure they would be dead. I guess this accounts for the population boom by barely keeping some people alive.
1st of all, OMG amazing painting! He is amazing! Wow! Depression sure gives a great outlook on life, well, great being unique and emotional... :)
The people in the painting look withered and unhealthy. If they are eating nearly only potatoes they may be getting nutrients, but well balanced enough to, as it seems, look human. They look more like pigs or dogs than humans. I could have sworn this was supposed to be similar to the dogs playing poker at first.
They look pleased and calm, but the room looks more dingy and gloomy. But that could just be the artist's mood reflected in the painting.
this doesn't give me warm and happy feelings about the potatoe
This shows how the potatoe was essential to the people of the world during this time period.
The people in the room seem very unhappy like they eat the potato on a daily basis. The potato must have been in great abundance during that time because they seem porrer then the average joe if u know what i mean but that might have been something that they grew themselves or the only thing that they could afford
The dark tone in the picture symbolized a more depressing attitude, they don't live a very eventful lifestyle. They don't have the money to fully enjoy a meal with diverse foods. Potatoes were a major crop and were easily made which made them affirdable for peasants to eat. You can see that they don't get much meat or other nutrients. It seems like they try to make the best of their situation, but are still very depressed and tired.
the people don't look that happy and kind of scary too. the room seems really small and the lighting is very dim. this painting shows how much people lived off of the potatoe but since they have eaten it a lot i think they would have got sick of it.
The people look like they are poor peasants living in a cramped basement with nothing to eat except for potato. They do look kinda skinny or bony and not really joyful. It's a depressing picture because of how dark it is and the face expression of the people inside the painting.
The people in the painting look very dreary and depressed. They still look hungry and their living conditions dont seem to be the best, it looks a little run down and old. They look as if they are still yearning to eat, although there is nothing else on the table.
Because potatoes have rich carbohydrate content, it became staple food to poor people. The lamp that lights the people in the darkness represents how potatoes saved poor people from starvation.
"The Potato Eaters" in the picture look depressed and worn out. They dont seem enthusiastic or excited about anything. Especially the man..he looks weird and creppy. Also, they look extra skinny and thin.
The people in the picture look dirty, sad, and lower class. This makes me think that the potato was an easy crop to grow and cheap, so they depended on it.
I thought the potato made a huge impact on saving many lives and increasing population, but by the look of this painting, it doesn't show it. Their hands are tiny and you can tell they are lower class by the setting. The potato obviously saved the population, but you can tell that most of those were lower class and poorer people by this painting. potatos also must have been abundant and probably a low cost!
Yeah, its kinda sad, and I think
Vincent wanted to show that too.
How the normal folks just lived their happy lives, while Van Gogh saw the poor and sympathized them. The painting is trying to tell the people people of the lives others lived. Well, in the end it was a failure and Vincent also went into their state. Pitiful... but that's reality for you.
It seems kind of ironical. Potato when it was first introduced, it was rare delacacie for the rich. But by looking at the painting tells it is not so few centuries later. I think potato became a common source of survival than a delicacy.
The painting is showing that the potatoe feed mostly lower class people, the people seemed rather unhappy. this was different because in the americas the potatoe was like more for higher class pleople but in europe it seems like its mostly for poorer people.
The color and shading of the picture gives it a dark, depressing mood. The people's face look very gaunt so im guessing they had limited food reply. Although the potato was one of the few food they ate, their facial expressions shows no emotions of gratefulness
The 2 people on the farthest left seem to be partially fighting over the potato bits if you look closely at the position of their fork/knives. Their faces are extremely gaunt and the colors and tone of the painting in general is very dark. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the tones used for the skin gives the people the appearance of an African American skin color or at least extremely dirty as if they haven't bathed in weeks. It also shows older people perhaps implying that they must take care of the older generation who were unable to support themselves as well as their own family. This could also put more stress and tension between the people living there. They also look extremely tired and worn out, maybe because they must work all day as well as being malnourished. The light that shines around the table may imply that the fact that they have any food at all is something that makes their life better, providing a "light" on their very dark lives.
Even though the people have something to eat, they are not happy. Although the potato has erased famine, peasants are still peasants. They still have to work as hard for food, but all they have to work hard for food. The peasants aren't jolly. It seems that the introduction of potatoes did little to change the status of peasants. Rather, it seems to have reinforced it.
*They still have to work as hard for food, but all they have is potatoes.
I don't know if its just me or not but the people in this picture look as if they are eating the potatoes but are not enjoying them. Were the rich people in the neighborhood also dependent on the potatoe. Paintings are usually a product of the authors environment, so was Van Gogh one of the people dependent on this crop.
The picture is sad and gloomy and even though they have food, you can still see how thin they are. They look worried too as if this is all they have and tomorrow will be hard. The room is dark and dimmed so one can sort of see that there is no real happiness.
They all look very sad hopeless. I think their facial expressions and the dark colors of the painting show their level in society.
Van Gogh depicts life as very hard times where the potaoe was the only way of survival nutritionaly.This was the lower class, although the potatoe did supply them with food, it was still very bad times, you can tell by their ratty clothing, the lack luxuries, and the fact that all they can afford for food is potatoes.
i don't understand how my post is special. it's gunna show the same answer. there's opnly so much analysing u can do to one picture, but here it goes...
this is obviously the middle class, of not the lowerclass. they're bony, skiny, hungry, bleak, and not too happy. they do look kinda content and exosted fromn their hard day and just in their own worlds where they have more than potatoes and tea every day...
what i saw in the picture was that the people looked sad, dirty, & lower class. The darkness of the photo really shows how I imagine those people are feeling.
yeah it looks like they are very unhappy and they also look like peasents and or the lowest class in that time
This is very gloomy and depressing. They are obviously lower class yet they don't looked pleased at all that they have potatoes to nourish them. They don't appear appreciative of what the Americas have brought to them and they also show this by how they treat the land and people there so poorly.
Yeah i guess they do look kind of sad, but thats the way people felt back then.
The painting seems to be very dark and has dim lighting shown in it. The people in the painting are also wearing very worn looking clothing. This could be trying to portray their lack of wealth. They also do not seem very interested in the fact that they are eating potatoes which could mean that the potato was a widely grown crop that many of the lower class people relied on for nutrients rather than the wealthy.
The people in this picture are first of all dirty. Van Goh emphasizes the bad times they are having with the dark colors. If you look at the lady on the right with the cup in her hand she looks sad but also happy to have food and a hot drink. I think this says that eventhough the people went through these rough times they were thankful for having the potato and their family.
The people in this painting look sad and scared. They look like they don't really know when their next meal would be. I think that even though the potato helped peasants a lot with hunger that they couldn't produce enough to always have everyone full. And I think that point is made by looking at this picture.
These people look very unhappy and depressed. They look very bony and it looks like they have not been able to bathe for a while. The potatoes look like they are not helping the people, so the potatoe might symbolize a poor, society.
It seems like the potato was eaten and was depended on for food by the poorer classes of society. I don't think there's any weird meaning behind "praising the potato" here, the painting is perfectly normal. It looks like how we would sit down and eat today, these people probably didn't think anyhting about how much they needed the potatoes.
its the lower class people that look very unhappy,unhealthy and poor
wait if they're patato eaters they shouldnt be that skinny right?
They seem all miserable and the faces of the woman that is giving potatoe to the other woman seems like she knew that the woman is not going to eat the potatoe but she is giving that to her anyways.
Also, it seems like they are not stisfied with the potatoe even tho it feeds them, and i looks like they would rather die than eat potatoe.
I think Van Gogh wanted to show how peasants really were. I think the overall mood of the painting being dark and gloomy shows his input of what he thought about them. all of the people in the painting seems ugly. (not to be rude) but i think he did this on purpose to show even more emotion into his painting
the people look very poor and like they have nothing else to eat but potatoes. they don't look very healthy either so thats probably all they eat
The people look very poor and gloomy. The dark colors make the picture seem very negative. They also seem very dependent on the potato because their life basically depends on it. If they don't have it, there is a high probability they will die.
The people in this painting look hungry, poor, and unhappy. The potatoe looks to be their only source of nutrient hence the unhealthy appeal of the people. The dark colors give off a negative feeling.
the people look thin, poor, and miserable. i don't really think the potato is to blame, just the lack of other types of food. it kinda shows how potatoes are such a staple crop, being so important. but of course the fact that the people are only eating potatoes shows how destitute they are and how much the lower class was suffering.
looking at the picture, the people are very poor and the difference between them here and the people that worshipped the potatoe is that the people who valued it were wealthier and it was a delicatessin (however you spell that) and they had more money to buy the potatoes. Their living place is very ragged and run down along with their clothes. Also, there is a lot of people at the table sharing just a few potatoes so they obviously dont have enough money to buy more since they are dependent on them.
even though the people in the painting are alive(im hoping, zombies... creepy)they look unhealthy and kinda distraught. sure the potatoe kept tons of people alive and pulled people out of famine but whats life when ur really unhappy???
everybody looks scary and very hunger... creepy
these people dont necessarily look like they're hating life, they just look like they're bored. bored with the same old same old. The lighting in the painting makes the scene seem dismal, but the looks on the people's faces tell a story of weariness and boredom. they're used to all of that, what's around them. they look tired. I want to throw a cheeseburger at them.
Although the dark colors and hues give off a more melancholy tone, If you look at their expressions, it does not seem like they are suffering too bad. Their fingers are bony and thin, and their faces seem slightly emaciated, but the individuals seem content. They are probably just glad that they have the potato for a source of food, instead of the alternative.
The people look thin, withered away, almost like an empty shell. The colors suggest a mood of sadness, and a gloomy atmosphere. Most of all, they all look like they're about to keel over from a potato overdose, and the man(or woman, or whatever it is) doesn't look none to happy to be served another wonderful plate of her/his/it's favorite dish. Ah, the joy of being lower-class and owning a small patch of land. Makes you feel envious to be a hobo, eating out of a garbage can, doesn't it? Atleast the hobos get a bit of variety in their diet, even if the only choices are diarrhea, or projectile vomit.
the dark almost shadow of this picture reminds me of a gloomy mood. the peoples' hands are very thin and bony. you can tell that they really depend on the potato. they look tired and worn out. they really work for their food. it doesnt come to them, they look like they are more on the poor side.
Hungy, poor, boney, and mysterious.
These are all what came to mind when i glanced at the photograph. Its got a very depressing and miserable mood. They look very unhealthy too. Negative side to the potatoes?
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