And if I manage to do this whole family better still, at least I shall have done something to my liking and something individual. I hope to get on with this and to be able to get more careful posing, paid for by portraits. You know how I feel about this, how I feel in my element, and that it consoles me up to a certain point for not being a doctor. I have made portraits of a whole family, that of the postman whose head I had done previously – the man, his wife, the baby, the young boy, and the son of sixteen, all of them real characters and very French, though they look like Russians. In the very first days of December 1888 Vincent told his brother Theo: Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin, April 1889, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (F439) Roulin saw van Gogh through the good and the most difficult times, corresponding with his brother, Theo following his rift with Gauguin and being at his side during and following the hospital stay in Arles. Van Gogh compared Roulin to Socrates on many occasions while Roulin was not the most attractive man, van Gogh found him to be "such a good soul and so wise and so full of feeling and so trustful." Strictly by appearance, Roulin reminded van Gogh of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky – the same broad forehead, broad nose, and shape of the beard. Van Gogh and Joseph Roulin met and became good friends and drinking companions. Joseph worked at the railroad station as an entreposeur des postes. Joseph, 47 years of age at the time of these paintings, was ten years his wife's senior. His wife, née Augustine-Alix Pellicot, was also from Lambesc they married 31 August 1868. Joseph Roulin was born on 4 April 1841 in Lambesc. Each family member's clothes are done in bold primary colours and van Gogh used contrasting colours in the background to intensify the impact of the work. The reason for multiple works was partly so that the Roulins could have a painting of each family member, so that with these pictures and others, their bedroom became a virtual "museum of modern art." The family's consent to modeling for van Gogh also gave him the opportunity to create more portraits, which was both meaningful and inspirational to van Gogh. Van Gogh described the family as "really French, even if they look like Russians." Over the course of just a few weeks, he painted Augustine and the children several times. The family included Joseph Roulin, the postman his wife, Augustine and their three children. Van Gogh painted the family of postman Joseph Roulin in the winter of 1888, every member more than once. Īs the Roulin family was similar in size to Van Gogh's own, in his psychological approach Lubin suggested that Van Gogh may have adopted them as a substitute. In exchange, Van Gogh gave the Roulins one painting for each family member. He found a bounty in the work of the Roulin family, for which he made several images of each person. I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize, and which we seek to communicate by the actual radiance and vibration of our colouring." Īs much as Van Gogh liked to paint portraits of people, there were few opportunities for him to pay or arrange for models for his work. He said of portrait studies, "the only thing in painting that excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else." Van Gogh wrote further of the meaning he wished to evoke: "in a picture I want to say something comforting as music is comforting. Van Gogh, known for his landscapes, seemed to find painting portraits his greatest ambition. In a letter to his brother, Theo, he wrote, "Painting as it is now, promises to become more subtle – more like music and less like sculpture – and above all, it promises colour." As a means of explanation, Vincent explains that being like music means being comforting. He is confident, clear-minded and seemingly content. This is likely one of Van Gogh's happier periods of life. He worked continuously to keep up with his ideas for paintings. The sunflower paintings, some of the most recognizable of Van Gogh's paintings, were created in this time. His paintings represented different aspects of ordinary life, such as portraits of members of the Roulin family. Van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France in 1888, where he produced some of his best work. The work allowed him to pull artistic learnings over the past several years towards the goal of expressing something meaningful as an artist. This series was made during one of Van Gogh's most prolific periods.
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