Hoping to create his first masterpiece, a great painter set out to show peasants as honest workers close to nature. His friends and relatives failed to recognize the painting's greatness, and it was never shown in his lifetime. What is the name of the artist and his work that does show plainest peasants, but indoors enjoying the fruit of their labors, not out in the field toiling?

looney_tunes

Vincent van Gogh, "The Potato Eaters". There is an image and discussion here. http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/f05/michalak/the_potato_eaters.html Jan 11 10, 12:47 AM

queproblema

Yes, Looney, exactly! It took me a long time to cross over from the friends' and relatives' position and catch van Gogh's vision. From your link: "...van Gogh’s figures were not pretty; there was something off about them. They had strange, gawky features and looked awkward - not the type of people a potential buyer would want hung on his wall. Van Rappard comments on how “superficial” the characters are and on how one of the women’s hands looks entirely wrong. Looking at the painting from purely academic and anatomical standpoints, van Rappard was correct in his observations. But he did not have the same experience with the subjects of van Gogh’s painting; he did not see how much hardship they were in, and therefore could never see 'The Potato Eaters' in the same light that van Gogh did as he painted it....However, if they looked like they were comfortable and correctly proportioned, the same effect of hardship and survival would not be as prominent and consequently not as integral to the theme and message of the painting." Jan 11 10, 6:00 PM