10/10/2014

“The Potato Eater” is a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. In this painting Vincent wanted to depict peasants’ real life.
In the painting, Vincent tried to paint the peasants as naturally as possible. In a dark room, peasants are  sitting around the weathered table, stretching out their bony fingers to reach the potatoes from a large platter. The only light source is from a little oil lamp hung above the table, enough for us to observe the detailed facial expression of peasants, but too weak to brighten up the whole room. This setting helps us to focus on the peasants in question. They are ungroomed and plain-looking. From them, you can feel the hardship that they have gone through.
This is a painting to evoke the emotional response to the human condition, not so much to showcase Vincent’s technical painting skill

I am not sure I agree with the last sentence.I think it is also amazing technically and emotionally.

When we describe art works we usually use the present.