Portrait of Joseph Roulin

Taken from: Museum of Fine Arts

  The painting "Postman Joseph Roulin" is one out of seven paintings Van Gogh had painted of him. Van Gogh had painted 25 portraits of the Roulin family. This work of art by Vincent was realistic since Roulin had been his model and for the 7 others as well. This painting showed that when Van Gogh had arrived in Arles he had focused solely on the man and woman living there. Van Gogh had been struggling with his hallucinations around the time he painted this yet the colors he used on Roulin was bright which was surprising since he often had his hallucinations.

  The medium Van Gogh had used for this painting was oil on canvas, The subject is to show a postman working a job but yet looks so full of energy stopped in time on a canvas. The techniques he used was the overlaying of paint over his canvas to show the short strokes when he had painted this. He had used these colors to show what Roulin wears for the job but to also show how energetic he was about his job. It shows his loyalty to his friend since everyone in Arles had started calling him crazy but the Roulin family.