Part II is prose over verse.
The "Potato Eaters" by Vincent Van Gogh.
It is one of my most favorite paintings of all times. The first time I saw it was in person was in spring of 1999, at the National Art Museum in Washington, DC. I stood in line with a friend for four hours in the late winter morning, for free tickets, with a quota of 4 per person. We went to the museum later that day, my friend and I. And though I knew nothing about impressionism beyond the superficial (I still don't know much) the paintings by Van Gogh pulled me in, into his world and his mood almost. The bedroom, the beach paintings, Sunflowers.
I had read up a bit on Van Gogh before going to the exhibit. The memories are so faded now but my best guess is that because I had been to the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History in NYC and knew vaguely of the impressionist masters, I was intrigued when I heard about the exhibit. Whether I read details about Van Gogh to learn something new or just to impress my friends, who can say. :-)
I do remember there was a fairly large crowd at the museum, the justification for tickets, and we could generally speaking only go in on direction through the exhibit. As I walked and saw the early works, the painting by the sea and the cottages, my mind was looking for the more known pieces, Sunflowers and the Starry Night. What caught me by surprise were the self-portrait, for its creativity in brushstrokes (this from a guy who has only ever painted indoor walls of a house). The starry night did not disappoint but a more poignant view was that of the Bedroom. Perhaps it spoke to my own memories of wanting a space of my own years before, when I slept in the living room in a 2 bedroom apt I shared with my parents and sisters, or the dreamlike state of the bedroom that Van Gogh presented but that was one of my favorites.
I can’t recall if it was midway or toward the end but coming around a corner of the contrived exhibit partitions, I saw five people sitting around a table, with curious expressions. The one lamp that lit the room left the impression of relatively unwashed clothes, sparse surroundings, and a partially obscured single platter of some monomorphic food being shared at the table. Whether it was meant or not, the impression was that of scarcity and a frank vulnerability of the human existence, unexpectedly, never more evident than in the moment when a human is eating.
Though the whole painting is dark in tones, the leading emotion when I look at the Potato Eaters is a bucolic melancholy. While the three people on the left, one with her back to us, is looking at the steaming potatoes the person on the right is pouring a warm liquid, presumably tea or coffee, with the person next to her with a hopeful longing in his expression. There is a subtle suggestion of expectation of joy or satiety in that face.
Van Gogh thought this was one of his best paintings.
So I told this story to piggyback another one. The hospital cafeteria has nearly always invoked the same feeling of melanchol. Think about it. The food is generally overpriced and underspiced. Despite being in a place of healing there is not much brightness in the dishes. On a good day, the folks helping behind the counter will try to imbue some hope by saying something nice about the meals, especially if you show some enthusiasm and respect. But it is beyond the grill stations and the soda fountains, and past the cash registers where you see the real vulnerability. People sitting alone or huddled in a group (pre-Covid). As their hands bring small pieces of nourishment up to the parted lips, there is pre-occupation with shift work, worries of patients, stress of the hours and pay. And thru all the taxing work that hospital staff must do, there is the need to provide energy to the tired body and bogged down minds.
It may see hyperbolic I’ll admit but with no loud noises, no music but possibly some muzak, and the veiled presence of the stresses that are waiting outside the cafeteria wall, the people eating in the hospital cafeteria have often reminded me of… the Potato Eaters.
Photo: The Potato Eaters, oil painting, Van Gogh museum, Netherlands.
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0135V1962r