Comprehension STOP Use your dictionary to find out the meaning of the bold words below.


! ‘The Potato Eaters’


By Vincent van Gogh (painted during April−May 1885)


Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch artist who lived in the 1800s. Van Gogh painted many famous paintings such as ‘Starry Night’, ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘Bedroom in Arles’ along with numerous self-portraits and landscapes. He is known for his use of vivid colour, broad brushstrokes and emotive subject matter. ‘The Potato Eaters’ was van Gogh’s first major work. At the time, he had not yet begun to use the vibrant colours that his paintings are now known for. His early paintings mainly consisted of the dark tones used above.


Van Gogh chose coarse and ugly models in order to represent the peasant subjects naturally: “You see, I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and that they have thus honestly earned their food. I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours − civilised people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why.”


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Unit 7 | Artwork


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