This week’s painting of the week is the painting of Madame Roulin.
In 1888 Van Gogh escaped the busy life of Paris and moved more south, to Arles. In Arles he rented a studio in the now famous Yellow House. Vincent described the studio in a letter to his brother Theo:
"In the right wing of this complex; where I will be living there are four rooms, actually two with two cabinets. The building is yellow on the outside and whitewashed inside. I will be paying 15 francs a month".
When Van Gogh lived in Arles (1888-1889), he painted lots of portraits of the Roulin family. This portrait is Madame Roulin, the wife of postman Roulin. He used bold colours agaist a vividly patterned background. The rope in her hands leads to a cradle. Vincent inscribed the title "La Berceuse", which means both "lullaby" and "she who rocks the cradle."
Vincent created eight versions of Madame Roulin's portrait. All with a different background or even small different details in the paintings.
Vincent wrote about this painting, of which he made five versions of in total, to his friend Koning on January 22 or 23 1889:
"The hands holding the rope of the cradle, the same. At the bottom the background is vermilion (simply representing a tiled floor or else a stone floor). The wall is covered with wallpaper, which of course I have calculated in conformity with the rest of the colours. This wallpaper is bluish-green with pink dahlias and spotted with orange and ultramarine."
Vincent had a special bound with the Roulin family, portaiting the Roulin family ment the most to him. To Vincent, the Roulin family represented the ideal family. A thing Vincent dreamed of his whole life, something he never could experience in his life.
Vincent was proud of the portraits he created of the Roulin family, he was glad that he had the opportunity to paint all the family members. Proudly he wrote to Theo that he managed to paint them all.
"I have painted each and every member of this very French family- the postman, his wife, the baby, the young boy and the sixteen-year-old son."
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Background information about all the places where Vincent van Gogh has lived and painted
