The Roulin Family

Infobox Painting|

---

title=Joseph Roulin, 1841-1903 (The Postmaster)
artist=Vincent van Gogh
year=1888
type=Oil on canvas
height=81.2
width=65.3
museum=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

"The Roulin Family" is group of portraits Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles in 1888 and 1889.

"Joseph Roulin" was born April 4 1841 in Lambesc, about 60 km east of Arles, and died in September 1903 in Marseille. August 31 1868 he married "Augustine-Alex Pellicot", born October 9 1851 like her husband in Lambesc, and died April 5 1930.

The Roulins had three children: "Armand Roulin", the eldest son, was born May 5 1871 in Lambesc, and died November 24 1945; 17 years of age, when portrayed by Van Gogh, he then worked in Lambesc. "Camille Roulin", too, was born im Lambesc, July 10 1877, and died June 4 1922; when his father had to answer to letters, he served as his secretary. [Letter xxx] "Marcelle Roulin" was born July 31 1888, and four months old, when Van Gogh did her portraits. [Letter xxx]

The Roulin family was of a similar size to Vincent's own family; Lubin [Lubin, "Stranger on the earth: A psychological biography of Vincent van Gogh," Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-091352-7, page 162.] suggests that Vincent may have adopted them as a substitute family.

August 1888

Van Gogh was deeply moved by the way Roulin had welcomed his new-born daughter. He sat down drinking with him, and later he started a portrait of Roulin. But he was not sure on the merits of the first version, so he did a second one, now concentrating on the head.

November/December 1888

In the very first days of December 1888 Vincent told his brother Theo:

: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. Size 15 canvases. 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 hope to get on with this and to be able to get more careful posing, paid for by portraits. And if I manage to do this "whole family" better still, at least I shall have done something to my liking and something individual. Just now I am completely swamped with studies, studies, studies, and this will go on for quite a while - it makes such a mess that it breaks my heart, and yet it will provide me with some property when I'm forty. [Letter [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/560.htm 560] ; emphasis (underlining) by Van Gogh himself]

The size given ("Toile de 15", c. 65 x 54 cm), the complete set can be identified:

In this set colour supplies meaning.

December 1888 and later

* Armand, Camille, and Marcelle Roulin

* Augustine Roulin, "La Berceuse"

* Joseph Roulin

ee also

* Portraits by Vincent van Gogh

Resources

Notes

External links

* [http://terresdefemmes.blogs.com/mon_weblog/2008/06/pierre-michon-v.html Pierre Michon, Vie de Joseph Roulin] (fr)