He has done a great job of painting what was basically a dark room and only one source of light. I wonder what his relationship was with the people. The two on the right and left have simian features.
He was a Dutch Reformed minister at the time and took to living among ‘the poor.’ He lost his ministerial position for being ‘too zealous.’ He always had a very sensitive place for the ‘downtrodden’ and it shows in ‘the potato eaters.’