Detail of The Postman Joseph Roulin by Van Gogh in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Postman Joseph Roulin
1888
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890

Dimensions: 81.3 x 65.4 cm (32 x 25 3/4 in.)

Medium or Technique: Oil on canvas

Classification: Paintings
Type: Portrait - Single - Male

Accession Number: 35.1982

One of van Gogh's closest friends and favorite sitters in Arles was the local postman, Joseph Roulin. While painting this work, van Gogh wrote to his brother, "I am now at work with another model, a postman in blue uniform, trimmed with gold, a big bearded face, very like Socrates." Indeed, the modest postman has all the authority of an admiral. Van Gogh also painted several portraits of Madame Roulin (for example, MFA object no. 48.548), as well as images of their children, delighted, as he wrote, to depict "a whole family."

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/postman-joseph-roulin-32542