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Portrait of Joseph Roulin

Vincent van Gogh, 1889

Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Joseph Roulin, painted in 1889, belongs to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands. The oil on canvas measures 65 by 54 cm. It is one of several portraits Van Gogh made of the same sitter, a man he painted more than once.

Where to see it

Portrait of Joseph Roulin is in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. Works in a collection are not always on view, so check the Kröller-Müller Museum's official website for current display status before you visit. The site will also have opening hours and ticket details.

What to look for in person

A face built from colour

Stand back first and take in the whole head and shoulders, then move closer. Van Gogh did not model the face with smooth, blended shading. He set down separate strokes of colour side by side, and you can follow them across the cheeks, forehead and beard. At a normal viewing distance these marks come together into a solid, lifelike face. Up close they stay distinct, and each one records a single movement of the brush. The canvas is 65 by 54 cm, so the sitter appears at roughly life size.

The sitter's working clothes

Joseph Roulin worked for the French postal service, and Van Gogh painted him in his work clothes. Look at the cap and the dark jacket, and at how the painter turned these plain items into areas of strong, flat colour. The uniform is part of how Van Gogh presents Roulin. It shows him as a working man and as someone the artist knew personally, not as a hired model. Compare the hard, simple shapes of the clothing with the livelier brushwork used for the beard and the face.

One portrait among several

Van Gogh painted Roulin a number of times. Other portraits of him are now in Boston, Detroit, Winterthur, Philadelphia and New York, and a drawing of him is in the Getty collection. Each version gives you something to compare. Notice how the pose and the treatment of the background shape your sense of the sitter here. Repeating a subject let Van Gogh test different colours and settings on a face he already knew well. That way of working, returning to familiar people and motifs, runs through much of his late career.

About the painting

Vincent van Gogh painted this portrait of Joseph Roulin in 1889. It is oil on canvas, 65 by 54 cm, and is now in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. Roulin was a postal employee whom Van Gogh met while living in Arles in the south of France. The two men became friends during the painter's time there. Van Gogh also painted members of Roulin's family, and the household was one of the closest personal connections he had in the town.

Roulin appears again and again in Van Gogh's work. Besides this canvas, portraits of him are held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Getty collection holds a drawing of the same sitter. Because the versions are scattered across Europe and the United States, the Otterlo painting is a chance to see one part of a series that rarely, if ever, hangs in one place.

For Van Gogh, a portrait was not only a likeness. He wanted colour and brushwork to carry feeling and character. In front of this painting, look at how the bold handling of paint describes Roulin and also conveys the painter's warmth toward someone he knew well.

The Kröller-Müller Museum has a large holding of Van Gogh's work, so this portrait can be seen in the context of his wider output. Check the museum's official website before you go to confirm whether the painting is currently on display.

Key facts

More by Vincent van Gogh

• Café Terrace at Night — Kröller-Müller Museum
• White House at Night
• The siesta (after Millet) — Musée d'Orsay
• The Church at Auvers — Musée d'Orsay
• Portrait of Père Tanguy
• Starry Night Over the Rhône — Musée d'Orsay
• The Potato Eaters — Van Gogh Museum
• The Red Vineyard
• The Yellow House — Van Gogh Museum
• Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin — Van Gogh Museum
• Irises — J. Paul Getty Museum
• Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The — Kröller-Müller Museum

Sources

• Wikidata Q24022774
• Wikipedia (nl) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• www.krollermuller.nl
• krollermuller.nl
• a.krollermuller.nl