The Roulin Family
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| Joseph Roulin, 1841-1903 (The Postmaster) |
| Vincent van Gogh, 1888 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 81.2 × 65.3 cm |
| 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.[1] Marcelle Roulin was born July 31, 1888, and four months old, when Van Gogh did her portraits. [2]
The Roulin family was of a similar size to Vincent's own family; Lubin[3] suggests that Vincent may have adopted them as a substitute family.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.[4]
The size given (Toile de 15, c. 65 x 54 cm), the complete set can be identified:
 Marcelle Roulin, b. 1888 |
 Armand Roulin, 1871-1945 |
 Camille Roulin, 1877-1922 |
In this set colour supplies meaning.
[edit] December 1888 and later
- Armand, Camille, and Marcelle Roulin
 Armand Roulin |
 Armand Roulin |
- Augustine Roulin, La Berceuse
 Kröller-Müller Museum |
 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
- Joseph Roulin
 Barnes Foundation, Merion |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Letter xxx
- ^ Letter xxx
- ^ Lubin, Stranger on the earth: A psychological biography of Vincent van Gogh, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-091352-7, page 162.
- ^ Letter 560; emphasis (underlining) by Van Gogh himself
| Vincent van Gogh |
|---|
 Groups and series of works: The Décoration for the Yellow House | The Roulin Family | Display at Les XX, 1890 | Auvers size 30 canvases | Auvers Double-squares and Squares |
