The painting The Potato Eaters shows a peasant family sitting around a square table eating potatoes in a dark room with light from an oil lamp. There are four women and one man. Their mouths and cheekbones are exaggerated. The wide-open eyes of two figures at the left shine with an inner light and the shadows on their features are more modeling of character than a phenomenon of darkness. Although the piece is laced in darkness, the mixed emotions residing in the faces of the occupants shine out brightly. The large platter of potatoes, and the boney fingers stretched out to obtain them. The woman pouring a brew similar to coffee while another woman waiting for it. In the background the picture frame hung on a darkened wall, the soft gentle lines forming a window in the darkness.
The composition has a rough strength, in part the result of a naive placing. The grouping of the figures at the sides of the table is odd; the wall between the two figures at the right creates a strange partitioning of the intimate space.
Vincent van Gogh placed figures in profile, their silhouettes in dark colors set off against the monochrome gloom of the background. The faces and hands of these peasants in color and modeling are like the potatoes that nourish. The colors of the dark interior - blue, green, and brown - bring the observer back to nature outside.
