Nuenen: In Vincent's time, the farm of the De Groot family was in Nuenen, next to mill De Roosdonck. He visited them a lot, painting them, portraits, hands, and interior of their cottage, and that cottage and the family were models for numerous studies of landscape, peasant heads and hands. In April and May 1885, he finally painted what he himself considered his first full-fledged work, The Potato Eaters. It shows the De Groot family at a meal. Vincent sent it to his brother Theo on May 6. He also made a lithograph of it, aiming to distribute it as a test of skill.
