Van Gogh The Potato Eaters

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Vincent Van Gogh being one of the pioneers for the expressionist movement, and just art in general was heavy on the expression of societal issues. Van Gogh was born in Holland in the small town of Groot-Zundert. As a child, he battled with emotion and social confidence, and used art as a form of expression. Around the Mid-1800’s he started painting seriously while residing in Belgium to study the thing he loves to do. One of his most famous paintings was created around the time of his death, and of course didn’t receive the recognition it deserved until then. The painting “The Potato Eaters” (1885) was a concentrated depiction of what was taking place in his home town of the Netherlands. Poverty was one of the leading concerns throughout the Netherlands, and this painting captured that. While he was living among the “peasants and laborers” he took a vow to depict “the people and their lives truthfully”, and he definitely delivered. The use of dark colors and loose brushstrokes are used to show the environment and the interaction it has with the people in it. The light in the middle of table I feel as if it is the thing that brings the people out of the darkness into truth. Their faces and body language tell a story of oppression and struggle, the way the woman hunches over portrays feeling of fatigue. No matter what they go through they still come together and eat around the table, the light is the sanctity. …show more content…

Poverty is defined as “the lack of basic human needs, such as clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them”. The painting shows that through the drab clothing on the five individuals in the painting, and most importantly the food they

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