The Potato Peeler Analysis

Vincent van Gogh mentions how one will not find trompe l’oeil in his paintings because he did not have any type of technique when it came to painting. Van Gogh tries to capture the essence in the drawing because he is always working directly on the spot. He wanted to rid people of their preconceived ideas of technique and surprise them with his irregular strokes and roughness. When he describes the painting of the asylum garden he focuses on the colors. He compares the colors to different emotions, for example he says that the colors red ochre, green, grey, and black heighten a sense of anxiety that his companions often suffer from. Van Gogh also describes another painting of a field with colors of lilac, green, yellow, and a bright white sun

Looking at his work Madame Matisse, it feels as though he is painting her face with different colors for a reason. Even both sides of the background were different colors. It’s almost as if he split the painting in half to represent different sides of Madame Matisse. In Notes of a Painter, published in 1908 he described colors and shapes as the equivalents of feelings rather than the counterparts

In my research / readings of my chosen Artist, I found a lot of information about them that I will descibe individually. Based on the biography, It has been stated that Vincent “was a most well known post-impressionism Artist, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, he was highly emotional, lacked self-confidence and struggled with his identity and with direction.” (Templeton Reid) In the late 1800’s is when Vincent basically made the decision to become an Artist, in which he wanted to provide some type of Happiness because he was able to create beauty (Templeton Reid). As you review the art chosen above by Vincent Van Gogh, you will notice the colors used were dark i.e. Greens, Oranges, Blues, with splashes of yellow to create the sun, which led me to believe that maybe this was when he was in the dark place of his life. In the Van Gogh painting, I see big trees with the nice bright sun shining over the blue water, while looking at the trees it makes me feel safe because of the openness of the surrounding space, also the brightness of the sun and the coolness of the water makes me calm and relaxed, it’s just something about being in nature that gives me a sense of peace and direction, nothing to distract or disturb me.

Several of artists were known in the 15th century, one of these Post-Impressionists was the Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh trusted that art was a type of expression. A painting was an enthusiastic and profound experience for him. He was born on March 30th, 1853 and passed away on July 29th, 1890. When Van Gogh was alive he sold only one of his painting, but now that he is dead he is the most famous artist. Each painting provides a certain way of information. The two painting's that caught my attention are "The Starry night." and "The potato eaters." These are the two paintings that are going to be compared. "The starry night" is one of the most well-known pieces of Van Gogh in modern culture. The reason why this painting is well liked

Feminism has been around for centuries. Victim feminism leads to negative perceptions and the alienation of women. Women seem powerless and almost to the point of rejecting any power they do have. It portrays women as “just that”, a woman. There to do the woman's job, and only that. By examining the poem “Cinnamon Peeler” by Michael Ondaatje, the reader gets a feel of victimized women and the inequality of women in a male dominated society. The Cinnamon Peeler himself is portrayed as a wealthy and prosperous man. Cinnamon is an exotic eastern spice, so this symbolizes social and economic status. He is portraying himself on a higher status than women.

Although these paintings were painted two hundred and seventeen years apart, they share some similar artistic qualities, but they are not so similar as to be indistinguishable from their own time period. Both Jan Steen and Vincent Van Gogh paint subjects around the table with hats and head coverings, a vanity that seems to stretch through both time periods and up to the modern era as well. The visual textures of both paintings are very similar as well. Each painting gives the illusion of a soft table covering and hard surroundings. In each painting the subjects are enjoying a vice, smoking in The Merry Family and Coffee in The Potato Eaters. The focal point of both paintings is similar too. In each the viewer’s attention is pulled to the table itself and is hastening to observe the people gathered around it. That seems to be where the similarities stop. Jan Steen uses a warm palette with a daytime natural lighting that plays across the painting from the window. In contrast, Van Gogh uses a cool palette and paints his scene at night using the whispering light of an overhead lantern.

In Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fire Place, there is a great amount of value. For example, there is darkness around her nose and cheeks. This darkness symbolizes a dark cloud hanging over her, like she has shame and wretchedness sticking with her. Another example is the darkness around the edges of the painting. This darkness is like an arch around the peasant woman. By creating this distribution of value, Van Gogh creates a murky feeling. Van Gogh’s main purpose for this distribution of value was to create an overall feeling for the audience, a feeling that would have the audience sense the challenging and depressing moments of peasants and lower class. The richness of the darkness helps the audience deeply feel the emotions of the peasant. There is also a hint of lightness in this artwork. The fire she is cooking on acts as the main light in the peasants living area. The fire lights up her face and hands, as well as behind the sitting

Mary Ann Shaffer’s and Annie Barrows’ novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society offers insight into life during, and shortly after, World War II through a collection of letters between successful author Juliet Ashton and many others ranging from her publisher to a man by the name of Dawsey Adams who found a book with her address in it. Juliet describes her hardships during the war, specifically on page 25, paragraph 4, where she can be quoted saying: “Remember the night last year when you met my train to tell me my home had been bombed flat? You thought I was laughing in hysteria? I wasn’t- it was in irony-if I’d let Rob store all my books in the basement, I’d still have them, every one”. On this quotation you can see how Juliet

That eventually influenced him to use brighter colors in his artwork and use more vibrant colors.

He used very dark tones and colors. Quite opposite of what was coming into style at the time. In France Impressionism was about to take over; capturing time and light with bright colors and short thought out brush strokes. Vincent was inspired and worked very hard to incorporate more color and light into his art. It was a dream of his that he would rent out a space and share it with fellow artists working and living together. Carrying out this dream would take its toll on Vincent and his

Imagine a life where reality is distorted and the only true companion to walk through life with are paints, brushes, and a blank canvas beckoning the artist to reveal his truth. This is the life and reality of famed artist Vincent van Gogh. The artist led a tragic and depressing existence from a young child, which continued throughout his adult years until his early departure at the young age of 37. Van Gogh left behind a legacy of beautiful and interpretive paintings, which express appealing landscapes, delicate flowers, and humanity in their surroundings. It begs the question, how could a gifted artist depict and interpret society so well in his paintings but have an inability to make personal connections

the artist use earthy like colors to convey a realistic feeling in the painting. Additionally, this painting is sensible and non-misrepresented, as it serves to demonstrate the daily life of a peasant family after a hard working day. Vincent van Gogh painting is sensible and non-misrepresented because he synthesizes his idea about art and society: he created a painting not only of peasants but for peasants (The Guardian). In Vincent van Gogh painting, The Potato Eaters,

3. Color- Van Gogh's use of color in this painting is very simple since he mainly used dark cool colors such as dark blue, dark green, black, along with a hint of light blue, a couple or orange and red dashes, and some white. He also used yellow which out of all

The people back in the 19th century really didn’t accept Van Gaogh’s truthful and emotionally morbid way of expressing the way of art is to himself. It finally was seen as art through the people’s eyes. This set a stage of art that is now known as Expressionism. It is best characterized by the use of symbols and a style that expresses the artist’s inner feelings about his subject. His style of painting is exemplified by a projection of the painter’s inner experience onto the canvas he paints on. Van Gogh’s paintings are done with his feelings that goes on in his life. (Mark Harden’s Artchive)

Vincent Van Gogh was formed by his social, cultural and historical context. This is expressed clearly in the underlying stories of both paintings, Starry Night, 1889 and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889. Both of these paintings portray a narrative relating to Van Gogh significantly as he emotionally connects to the subject in each painting. Van Gogh’s aim of these subjective works was to express meaning through colour and express the painting to a more personal emotion for the viewer. Van Gogh belonged to a small style of Post Impressionism which was a reaction against Impressionism and their formality.