‘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."



UK Farm Swaps Milk for Cow Cuddles

Visitor Jess Tinton embraces a cow during a "Cow Cuddling" experience at Dumble Farm in Arram, Britain, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Visitor Jess Tinton embraces a cow during a "Cow Cuddling" experience at Dumble Farm in Arram, Britain, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble
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UK Farm Swaps Milk for Cow Cuddles

Visitor Jess Tinton embraces a cow during a "Cow Cuddling" experience at Dumble Farm in Arram, Britain, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Visitor Jess Tinton embraces a cow during a "Cow Cuddling" experience at Dumble Farm in Arram, Britain, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its cows and instead charge visitors to cuddle them.

Dumble Farm started as a dairy farm in the 1970s, but in recent years flooding washed out crops and killed off the type of grass the cows like to eat, while milk prices below cost of production proved an insurmountable challenge, Reuters reported.

"The amount of flooding and the pressures on our land were just making it unsustainable for us to carry on," said Fiona Wilson, co-owner of the farm.

Agriculture is one of the sectors worst-affected by climate change, with farmers in Europe and elsewhere suffering under increasing heat, drought and flooding.

In 2022, Dumble Farm sold all but a few of its dairy cows and, in a scramble to reinvent itself, began offering "cow cuddling" experiences to fund a wildlife conservation scheme.

For 95 pounds ($127.80), visitors can cuddle, brush and stroke the cows as they lie down on a straw-covered enclosure inside a barn. The experience includes a safari to see Highland cattle.

"It's been so worth it, just to get so close to the cows, and they are so loving and gentle," guest Emma Hutton, 25, said after she spent some time cuddling one of the cows.

It took over a year to train the cows to feel comfortable with cuddling, but now the animals have fully adjusted, farmer James McCune said.

"They like being pampered. They are like big dogs... It's more of a spa day for the cows," McCune said. The farm uses the proceeds to create habitats to protect wildlife and support declining species, such as lapwing birds.

"It's great that we can fund the conservation scheme by having visitors to the farm, and that's really the bigger picture," Wilson said.