During his visit to Nuenen, Van Rappard paints several study heads of peasants and workers. It encourages Vincent to further his skills in figure painting. In order to become a peasant painter, he believes he must practice considerably. He resolves to paint at least 30 heads. Driven as he is, he adjusts his goal to 50. From the period between late October and late May, 47 head studies have survived.
The plan to take figure drawing lessons outside Nuenen, Vincent abandoned for the time being. For a winter, he practiced with his head studies not only in anatomy, but also in color, brushwork and light-dark effects. Since the beginning of his artistry, Vincent hopes to produce a painting with multiple figures, a complex task. In preparation, he also studies hands and arms. In early April 1885, his desire for a figure piece takes shape. He chooses a depiction of "peasants around a dish of potatoes at night. He makes many preliminary studies and, based on them, puts together a composition in the studio. For The Potato Eaters he makes a large study in April 1885, to which he makes a lithograph. The final version of the painting follows in April-May.
He made the many preliminary studies on the spot in the farmhouse. As Vincent described earlier, he had "gone house to house with the people" during which he had "discovered new models. On one such expedition, he must have entered the home of the De Groot-van Rooij family. This 'hut,' as Vincent calls the simple peasant homes, and its inhabitants form the stage and extras of The Potato Eaters. The painter frequently visited the family. They live on the present Gerwenseweg 4 on the north side of Nuenen, east of mill De Roosdonck. The modest "hut" consists of three linked small houses. Although the painting La chaumière, or The hut, has been associated with the home of the De Groot-van Rooij family, this does not seem likely.
Seven people live in the terraced house of the De Groot-van Rooij family. Widow Cornelia de Groot stays there with her children Hendrik, Peter and Gordina (Sien), as well as Cornelia's sister Mieke and brothers Francis (Sis) and Anthonius (This). Vincent also records several family members in separate studies.
The farmhouse was owned by Cornelia's father Anthonie van Rooij and came into the possession of her husband Cornelis de Groot in 1873, who died ten years later. The house would be demolished in the late 1920s. Journalist Benno Stokvis photographed the inside of the cabin before its demolition; the man in the photo is the last living relative Gijsbertus, who lived on Beekstraat at the time. Gordina's son, Cornelis de Groot Jr. is building - partly on the site of the demolished parental home - the current shelter. In the wall at the back, stones from the former house would have been incorporated. An illogical kink in the inner wall would be the result of construction on the former fireplace. Parts of the door frame to the kitchen and the window in the dining room are also said to be from the previous house. Descendants of the De Groot family lived there until 1954. The house was damaged in World War II, after which it was repaired. The former house would have been larger according to foundations still present.
