Van Gogh once said that he tried to paint his subjects with deep feeling but without sentimentality. He wanted to convey the idea that his subjects had “used the same hands with which they now take...

Van Gogh once said that he tried to paint his subjects with deep feeling but without sentimentality. He wanted to convey the idea that his subjects had “used the same hands with which they now take food from the plate to dig the earth . . . and had thus earned their meal honestly.” Do you think he succeeded in honoring the peasants in the picture, or does their grotesque appearance — he also said he wanted their faces to be “the color of a good, dusty potato, unpeeled naturally” — suggest a different result?