The Potato Eaters Art Criticism BY Van Gogh By: Matheus Lago

The Potato Eaters Art Criticism DESCRIPTION: This master piece was painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1885. Van Gogh called his painting, “The Potato Eaters.” In this painting you can see the darkish grey, earthy colors used to express this farming families’, hard work out in the fields. You can see five human figures, one male and 3 females and one androgynous figure. These figures can be seen sharing a simple meal that seems to supply exactly what the title claims it does. The meal consists of potatoes and coffee. You can see the antique dining table and the chairs. In the painting you can almost feel the cramped space giving off claustrophobic vibes. The room is so small that you can see the figures nearly touch the roof with their heads. The potato eaters uses elements of art such as, color, lines, and space. These three are shown in their own unique ways. The color is shown when Van Gogh paints the family members in darker colors which, like stated before, represents their daily work in the field. The lamp above their heads also provides warmer orang tones to their faces. The soft and gentle lines form the windows in the darkness while the space in-between the family figures are almost, if not perfectly, spaced out.

The Potato Eaters Art Criticism ANALYSIS: This Painting by Van Gogh has a point of emphasis. Its focal point that I first looked at would be the exact center of this painting. This is because of the lamp light hanging from the ceiling of the room. The lamp light is used to give an orange tone to the surrounding faces of the family, making it a fascinating point of emphasis. There is also a special balance. This balance is the mood that the painting creates. The atmosphere feels gloomy and weary. The proportions in this painting are ideal because the colors are equally used and the body proportions look like real human figures. Elements such as colors were repeated to make a pattern. This is shown in the painting when the artist uses darker colors to set the pattern of the mood in the painting. There is also a rhythm in which my eyes follow. This path starts at the lamp light, which leads into the light that shines onto the faces, and from there I continue to look around the background and its macabre artifacts, darkened windows and emotionless paintings on the walls. There are a few elements that bring together this paintings design. This element would be the lines and textures of the facial expressions on their faces. The elements help express the mixed inner emotions. Their expressions are seen as very serious and solemn and they do not seem very happy. That’s how these elements help express the design of this painting.

The Potato Eaters Art Criticism INTERPRETATION: My interpretation of this painting is very direct. There is definitely symbolism in this painting. I believe the symbolism Van Gogh was trying to show was the hardship of poverty and being at the line of penury. You can see this as they eat this simple meal and gaze into the nothingness of their walls which I can only assume leads them to a world they construct in their minds. I also think that the oil lamp shining its light on the meal symbolizes the one bright thing the family can look forward to after their grueling day. This was meant to give the viewers a feeling of an intense, quite atmosphere. It reminds me of the people I see who live in almost the same conditions as this family. And just like in the painting, these true issues connected with the painting are only glanced at and not thought about for too long. This painting was made a few years after the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments where passed. Each of those had to do with slavery and the hardship of the civil war, therefore making slavery illegal. Although slavery was illegal and people of different ethnicities where free, they still had to face the trauma of all the suffering they have been through. Thus proving the connection to poverty-stricken hardship in the painting.

The Potato Eaters Art Criticism JUDGMENT: I enjoyed this artwork. This painting by Van Gogh was interesting and left me with a feeling of empathy and sorrow for this family. The style of the artwork was gloomy and natural it showed that not every family is as fortunate as others. For this same reason, I found this painting unique. It had a dull atmosphere which set the mood to many feelings of sorrow and dejection. It was also different from Van Gogh’s earlier paintings. In the later 1800’s, Van Gogh’s paintings became more sorrowful and this painting continues to reflect as such. Normally his paintings show more color and produce emotions of brightness, however in this painting he had a strict painting style which is also why I liked it so much. The thing lacking in this painting is color. However the lack of color is what sets the atmosphere for this piece so therefore the painting is evened out.