Skip Channel4 main Navigation
The Potato Eaters, 1885
Oil on Canvas, 82 X 114 cm
Photo: Van Gogh Museum,
Amsterdam
With no money forcing a move back to the family in Nuenen in 1883, he again saw beauty in the lowly weavers and labourers, painting his masterpiece, Potato Eaters, in 1885, at the age of 32. But when his peasant model became pregnant, the Catholic priest banned the locals from posing for him. Impulsive and impassioned, Vincent left Holland for good.
In the rough Belgian port city of Antwerp, café girls were his models, although the seedy lifestyle took its toll on his health. Without funds, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Art where he could paint nudes, but his teachers felt he had little talent.
