‘Potato Eaters’…Controversial Artwork at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum

Iconic 19th-century artist Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Potato Eaters." (Getty Images)
Iconic 19th-century artist Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Potato Eaters." (Getty Images)
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‘Potato Eaters’…Controversial Artwork at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum

Iconic 19th-century artist Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Potato Eaters." (Getty Images)
Iconic 19th-century artist Vincent Van Gogh's painting "The Potato Eaters." (Getty Images)

The Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is more famous for his cheerful paintings – his bright and light-flooded southern French landscapes. But now for the first time, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum is devoting an exhibition exclusively to his early depiction of peasant life, full of darkness but also admiration.

"The Potato Eaters" is one of the first masterpieces by Van Gogh and without a doubt the artist's biggest "failure," at least according to its critics at the time. It depicts five people sitting in a cramped kitchen having dinner, their faces tired and distorted – bulbous noses, bony gnarled hands. The scene is dark and gloomy, according to the German News Agency.

About 50 paintings, sketches, drawings and letters will be on display from October 8, telling the story of the painting – a "story of ambition and perseverance," the director of the museum, Emily Gordenker, said. "The painting was never sold and never exhibited during Van Gogh's lifetime. Today, however, it is world-famous and considered a key work in the painter's development," she said.

Vincent Van Gogh painted "De aardappeleters" (potato eaters) in 1885 during a turbulent period he spent with his parents in Nuenen, in the southeast of the Netherlands. He made numerous studies and sketches for it.

It's one of Van Gogh's "most thought-out paintings," said Bregje Gerritse, curator of the museum. The painter himself described it as a "master's test" and, according to the curator, wanted to make his breakthrough with it. But the painting failed. Van Gogh received harsh criticism for this work, especially because of its use of gloomy colors and the distorted depiction of people's faces.

To bring the painting to life, the museum has now recreated the scene with a life-size, walk-in model for its spotlight exhibition.

"The Potato Eaters: Mistake or Masterpiece?" Van Gogh wanted to depict the harsh reality of peasant life, a life he himself admired. He deliberately showed the characters with coarse faces and bony hands worn from labor, Gerritse said. "Van Gogh wanted to show the peasants in all their roughness."



S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
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S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP

On his farm two hours north of Johannesburg, Nico Thuynsma gestured towards thousands of orange, yellow and pink proteas in flower and thriving 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa.

"They're all different," the 55-year-old farmer said of the assorted blooms from the diverse Proteaceae family that has more than 350 species in South Africa, from firework-like "pincushion" varieties to delicate "blushing brides".

He picked out a majestic pink and white crown, nearly the size of his head, that has taken four years to reach its impressive size. "The King Proteas are very slow to grow," Thuynsma said.

The largest of the proteas, the King Protea, is South Africa's national flower.

It has lent its name to the national cricket team and countless brands. It features on the currency and is the logo for South Africa's presidency this year of the G20 group of leading economies, which convenes a summit in November.

It is also the country's largest flower export with more than 10 million stems sent abroad last year, worth close to 275 million rand ($15 million), according to the Cape Flora industry organization, said AFP.

Its status offers the King Protea some protection but almost half of South Africa's other protea species face extinction because of pressures on their native habitats in the mountains of the Cape, according to South Africa's National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

These include habitat loss to agriculture, the proliferation of invasive alien species and "changes to natural fire cycles", SANBI said in a 2021 report.

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"People come to South Africa to see proteas," Nigel Barker, a professor in plant sciences at the University of Pretoria, told AFP. "It's the plant equivalent of the elephant or the lion."

Most proteas are endemic or semi-endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom biome of "fynbos" ("fine bush") that stretches across the southern tip of South Africa and is one of the world's richest flora biodiversity hotspots.

But climate projections predict "hotter, drier conditions", Barker said. "We'll be looking at a completely different vegetation type in the future, semi-desert almost in some places."

"Many species, because they're so range-restricted, will probably go extinct under those scenarios," he said.

"The only solution we have is to cultivate them artificially... in greenhouses or farms where you control irrigation," Barker said.

An example is Thuynsma's farm in the grasslands of the north, where he began planting proteas three decades ago.

Here, winters are dry and frosty, and the summers rainy -- conditions very different to those in the far south where the proteas are at home.

Gel for irrigation

Through trial and error, Thuynsma has been able to cultivate close to 200 protea varieties, including some long forgotten and abandoned by farmers in their original habitats.

In his latest experiment, he has planted 36 varieties with just two liters (four pints) of saturated gel for irrigation.

"I hope to unlock the power of some of these varieties," Thuynsma said. "They come from the Western Cape out of very harsh conditions, so they do have it in them."

"I learn from them, I learn with them. And, hopefully, in the future I can advise my nursery public -- and even estates -- how to plant this lovely fynbos without irrigation," he said.

"I don't think I have a solution for climate change," he joked, crouched over a small seedling in freshly turned soil. "But I do have a solution: to plant proteas."

A few meters (yards) away, in a warm nursery, thousands of protea sprouts awaited their turn in the soil.

"I love them, I protect them, I collect them," Thuynsma said. "The protea is part of South Africa's DNA."