Behind the Art: Why is Portrait of Joseph Roulin, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh so famous?

The artist and his best friend

It is common knowledge that artists are if not more emotional than others and tend to paint images that move them emotionally. However, some paint what the world would like them to paint just so they can earn a living out of it. Van Gogh always painted what he held close to his heart. Even during his psychosis period, he painted the night sky and the flowers at the asylum which helped him connect to the nature around him and gave him hope. Van Gogh decided to paint more than 20 portraits of his friend Joseph Roulin and his family. Joseph was a postal employer in the southern French town of Arles. Van Gogh met him at a shallow point in his life. He had only recently moved to Arles in hopes to create an artist’s cooperative there; however the plan never came to be and he felt very lonely and isolated. That is when he found comfort and companionship with the Roulin family and started painting them extensively. He painted Roulin for the first time in the summer of 1888. He would soon start painting his entire family including his wife and three children. He wanted to do what he called ‘modern portraits’.

In a letter to his brother Theo, he wrote he wants to do “a picture that expresses character not by the imitation of the sitter’s appearance but through the independent, vivid life of colour.” His artist friend Paul Gauguin helped influence him in making modern portraits. He urged less dependence on observation and more reliance on memory. And then in the wildly infamous incident where Van Gogh cut off his ear after getting into an argument with Gaugin, it was Roulin who tended to Van Gogh and saw that he was committed to the psychiatric hospital in Arles. He even watched over him during his treatment there, writing to his family to reassure them of his health, and providing constant solace to the recovering artist. As Van Gogh was struggling to regain his mental stability, Roulin’s friendship and support became even more fundamentally crucial for him.

This picture, which Van Gogh boasted of having completed in just one session, was painted after Roulin got a better-paying job and left Arles. Some art scholars think that this portrait was not painted from life but rather from memory or from previous paintings which makes this work even more impressive. (Photo: moma.org)

Why is this portrait so famous?

The twenty-plus portraits Van Gogh painted of Roulin and his family were very unique, just like any of his other works. He used thickly painted vivid colours in the paintings and this changed the way many artists view portraiture. In this portrait, Roulin is shown in the uniform he always wore so proudly, set against a backdrop of swirling flowers. This is another reason why this portrait is considered so modern and relevant. According to Van Gogh “the modern portrait” excited him the most and he wanted to ”paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to. Van Gogh was fascinated by Roulin’s face and that is the primary focus of the painting. This picture, which Van Gogh boasted of having completed in just one session, was painted after Roulin got a better-paying job and left Arles. Some art scholars think that this portrait was not painted from life but rather from memory or from previous paintings which makes this work even more impressive. Another reason why this portrait is so well known is that it has few elements of Japanese art, which at that time was booming. The paintings of the Postman Joseph Roulin reflected Van Gogh’s deep interest in Japanese prints. Van Gogh discovered Japanese Art in magazine illustrations of artwork created by woodblock prints using Japanese techniques that depicted Japanese life. In 1885, Van Gogh started collecting “ukiyo-e” prints that he bought in small Parisian shops. He shared these prints with his contemporaries and organised a Japanese print exhibition in Paris in 1887. It is clear that when 1889 he chose to paint this portrait, he reflected the vibrancy of colour and light seen in Japanese woodblock prints.

Now known as one of the most expensive paintings in the world, this portrait of Joseph Roulin is seen as a symbol of friendship and hope. Although Van Gogh lived as a poor man who was not recognised for his art and failed to sell more than a painting in his lifetime, he died having the most priceless thing in the world – a good friend called Joseph Roulin.

Next up in Behind the Art: Why is Irises by Vincent van Gogh, 1889, one of the most renowned works in the world?

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