Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent van Gogh - 1888 - 12 5/8 x 9 5/8 in J. Paul Getty Museum Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent van Gogh - 1888 - 12 5/8 x 9 5/8 in J. Paul Getty Museum

Portrait of Joseph Roulin

Reed and quill pens and brown ink and black chalk • 12 5/8 x 9 5/8 in
  • Vincent van Gogh - March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890 Vincent van Gogh 1888

"A good soul and so wise and so full of feeling and so trustful"—thus Vincent van Gogh described his friend Joseph-Etienne Roulin. Van Gogh drew and painted many portraits of Roulin, a postal worker in Arles, where Van Gogh lived from 1888 to 1889. In letters and pictures, Van Gogh idealized Roulin, regarding him as both a man of the people and a sage.

Facing frontally, Roulin is pushed close to the picture plane, with his eyes looking slightly wistfully to the side. Van Gogh's energetic lines describe Roulin's full beard, his facial structure, and his somewhat crooked nose.