Postman Joseph Roulin
12:00 AM
 |
| Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888, Postman Joseph Roulin |
The Roulin Family is group of portraits that Vincent van Gogh painted in Arles between 1888 and 1889. The portraits, featuring Joseph, his wife Augustine and their three children, Armand, Camille and Marcelle, was VanGogh’s attempt at practicing his portraiture technique. During that time period, finding a family that was willing to sit down for portraits, in spite the instantaneous results of photography, was rare.
The portrait of Postman Joseph Roulin, featuring the father dressed in the customary blue of a carrier’s attire, interests me more than any other Roulin portrait. Van Gogh uses an imaginative technique to create the shading and seating posture of Joseph. Roulin’s acquired the unique child-like style that people like to refer too. Van Gogh’s attempt at using concrete, non-blended colors to shade the deep blue of his suit, becomes more apparent as the viewer’s eye descends below Joseph’s buttons. The dark contrast between the deep arctic blue and the light colors pushes Joseph’s form forward, towards the audience. Also, I like his beard.
0 comments