I'd rather fail than sit idle.

I don't know the future, Theo - but - I do know the eternal law that everything changes -

think back 10 years and things were different, the conditions, the mood of the people, everything in short.

And 10 years on, a great deal is bound to have changed again. 

But doing something endures - and one doesn't easily regret having done something.

The more active the better, and I'd rather fail than sit idle.

Vincent to his brother Theo in 1885.

 

And many trials of works on 'the potato eaters' during March-May in 1885

Four People Sharing a Meal Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, Mars-April 1885, Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

 

Study for 'The Potato Eaters' Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, April 1885, Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

 

The Second Study of The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh, April-May 1885, Credits : Kröller-Müller Museum

 

The Potato Eaters Vincent van Gogh, April-May 1885, Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

 

<lithography version of 'the potato eaters'>

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, April 1885, Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

 

Test of mastery

The potato eaters is the most ambitious painting of Van Gogh’s Dutch period. Prior to starting the painting, he makes over a hundred portrait studies of farmworkers, various drawings and two painted studies. Thus he prepares himself for his first large painting on the theme of peasant life in Brabant, which he regards as a kind of test of his mastery. He wants to prove that he is on his way to becoming an accomplished figure painter. This painting precedes the final version and has virtually the same composition, but the layout is sketchier. (출처: Kröller-Müller Museum)