"I have tried to emphasize that those people, eating their potatoes in the lamp-light have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labor, and how they have honestly earned their food."
Vincent Van Gogh
Peasant family at the table was a theme explored at that time but the right painting, 1882, by Josef Israels is known to have influenced "The Potato Eaters".
Funny because they only have in common the number of relatives at the table and the light. Van Gogh said in one of his letters that the frame should be yellow so that it was possible to see all the colors which shows that even prior to be influenced by the impressionist colors he already had a different view about the light and colors. I'm searching for the paintings that are not very known. If you know of any site please tell me. Unfortunately cannot travel now or I would go to every city that has a not famous Vincent, especially private collections. I don't know what is the town that if a person has a painting of a famous artist he/she has to leave people visit it. I'll search for that because I'm not making it up. Seriously!