Monday, February 1, 2010

Art: Van Gogh / The Potato Eaters

“I have tried to make it clear how those people, eating their potatoes under the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in their dish, and so it speaks of manual labour, and how they have honestly earned their food. I have wanted to give the impression of quite a different way of living than that of us civilized people. Therefore I am not at all anxious for everyone to like it or to admire it at once.”
- Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), on his first major work The Potato Eaters, painted early in his artistic career and before his involvement with impressionism.
Question: Why do the people in the painting sit on the corners of the table instead of the straight parts? Would that not make a crowded room more crowded?

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