When Van Gogh began the painting in April 1885, he lived with his parents in Nuenen. There he made more than a hundred portrait studies of local farm workers. These were preparations for his large painting about rural life in Brabant, which he viewed as a kind of test of his painterly skill. He wanted to demonstrate that he was becoming a good figure painter. ‘The Potato Eaters’ is made up of broad, coarse brush marks with minimal attention to detail. He placed more emphasis on effects of light and shade. He later said about the faces that he attempted to give them ‘the colour of a really dusty potato, unpeeled of course’.
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