Van Gogh : The Anti-Capitalist

Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters” is unlike anything we are familiar with when we think of his more popular paintings. Devoid of specific, meticulous avant-garde art techniques, it stands as one of the earliest examples of his “Still Life” paintings created during his time in the Netherlands. The “Still Life” series (circa 1885) overlaps with his “Peasant Character Studies” (circa 1883), frequently featuring ‘peasant’ as the main subjects of these paintings. During this period, Van Gogh “experimented” with dark and earthy tones, depicting the appearance and effects of light as it interacted with objects and subjects within a painting.

Aesthetically, the painting uses dark hues of green, black, and brown tones, causing it to appear dull in color and persisting in a muted tone. Van Gogh portrays a silence resonating within the image as a result of the subjects and their gazes, appearing as though they are avoiding eye contact with one another and the viewers of the painting. In using dark colors and hues to playfully reflect the effects of light and shadows as it interacts with surrounding objects, Van Gogh brings light to the mundane lives of the working class.

Society’s reluctance to accept Van Gogh’s “Still Life” series made “Realism” exist as a rejection of “Impressionism,” which was the primary focus of Western Art at the time – making work on “Peasant Characters” hard to sell at the time. It was alleged that the difficulty in selling these works was due to his “overly dark color palette,” which was nothing like the works of the Impressionists.

However, I believe the core question isn’t solely about the color itself but rather about whether the issue lies in the broader focus of realism depicting the lives of the majority, particularly those previously overlooked by society — the working class. “The Potato Eaters” portrays the static, mundane existence of laborers, shedding light on a segment of society typically ignored by the art world.

According to Karl Marx, class division is fundamentally defined by ownership of resources, especially the means of production. Marxist theory further delves into the concept of labor power and the ability to control others’ labor as additional factors in class stratification. This suggests that class is determined not solely by financial status, but also by the ownership of property and the ability to command labor.

“The Potato Eaters” serves as a visual representation of the consequences of “production for profit.” It portrays the firsthand labor of those who work the land, essentially selling their labor power. However, despite their toil, they receive the least rewards. The irony lies in the fact that after cultivating and gathering, the working class must then visit a supermarket, using the wages paid to them by those who bought their labor power, to purchase the very food they helped produce. This underscores the cyclical nature of exploitation within a capitalist system.

Can the lives of the working class ever really be still?