When I hear you talk about a lot of new names, it's not always possible for me to understand when I've seen absolutely nothing by them. In a letter to his brother Theo written mid-June 1884, Vincent remarks: Van Gogh is often associated in people's minds with the Post-Impressionist movement, but in fact his artistic roots lay much closer to home in the artists of the Hague School such as Anton Mauve and Jozef Israëls. On the other hand, one overlooks many an unpretentious woodcut or lithograph or etching now and then, but comes back to it and becomes more and more attached to it with time, and senses something great in it. Īnyway, some paintings in their huge frames look very substantial, and later one is surprised when they actually leave behind such an empty and dissatisfied feeling. No, in most cases the solidity and pith of the small is only obtained through much more serious study than is imagined by those who think lightly of the task of illustrating. I believe, though, that it would be a great mistake to imagine that such things as, for instance, the print The Grace (a family of woodcutters or peasants at table) were created at a stroke in their final form. In a letter dated around 3 December 1882 he remarks Though he appreciated small scale graphic work and was an enthusiastic collector of English engravings he worked relatively little in graphic mediums. Van Gogh had first experimented with lithography in The Hague in 1882. He sent impressions to his brother and, in a letter to a friend, wrote that he made the lithograph from memory in the space of a day. Van Gogh made a lithograph of the composition The Potato Eaters before embarking on the painting proper. Lithograph Lithograph (April 1885), reversed, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Van Gogh's The Potato Eaters was inspired by this work of de Groux and similar religious connotations can be identified in Van Gogh's work. The painting was closely linked to Christian representations of the Last Supper. De Groux's work is a solemn depiction of a peasant family saying grace before supper. Vincent Van Gogh is known to have admired the Belgian painter Charles de Groux and in particular his work The blessing before supper. had no right to condemn my work in the way you did" (July 1885), and later, "I am always doing what I can't do yet in order to learn how to do it." (August 1885). This was a blow to Van Gogh's confidence as an emerging artist, and he wrote back to his friend, "you. However, the work was criticized by his friend Anthon van Rappard soon after it was painted. Writing to his sister Willemina two years later in Paris, Van Gogh still considered The Potato Eaters his most successful painting: "What I think about my own work is that the painting of the peasants eating potatoes that I did in Nuenen is after all the best thing I did". He deliberately chose coarse and ugly models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work. Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were. He worked on the painting from 13 April until the beginning of May, when it was mostly done except for minor changes that he made with a small brush later the same year. He began working on The Potato Eaters while living with his parents in Nuenen, a rural town which was home to many farmers, labourers and weavers. The cottage was home to two families, one of which was the de Groots who were the subjects of The Potato Eaters ĭuring March and the beginning of April 1885, Van Gogh sketched studies for the painting and corresponded with his brother Theo, who was not impressed with his current work nor the sketches Van Gogh sent him in Paris. Composition The Cottage, 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F83). The painting is considered to be one of Van Gogh's masterpieces. The original oil sketch is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and he made lithographs of the image, which are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The Potato Eaters ( Dutch: De Aardappeleters) is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands.
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