Roulin Special - Part 3/5
Reading time: c. 2.5 minutes
Armand Roulin was Joseph and Augustine’s eldest son. Vincent van Gogh painted three portraits of him, in which he appears increasingly confident and ‘mature’.
The downy moustache shows that Armand is no longer a child. But he is not yet fully grown either, as he still lacks his father’s full beard. In addition to his appearance, Armand’s posture also influences how he comes across in the paintings. In the first portrait, we see the 17-year-old in profile, his expression subdued. In the other two versions he has gained confidence and looks straight at us.
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 65.5 × 54.3 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Acquired with the collection of D.G. Van Beuningen. Photo: Studio Tromp
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 65 × 54.1 cm, Museum Folkwang, Essen. Photo: Museum Folkwang Essen—ARTOTHEK
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 47,5 × 39 cm, private collection. Photo: P. Schaelchli
Vincent painted the first two portraits in November 1888, shortly after one another. They were painted quickly, with large blocks of colour, bold outlines and broad brushstrokes. The second work feels particularly spontaneous: in places, patches of bare canvas show through the yellow jacket. Vincent only refined the faces, using smaller brushstrokes to add details.
Microscopic research has revealed that Vincent first made a charcoal underdrawing for these two portraits, which could explain why he was able to apply the paint so quickly.
Armand appears to be wearing the same clothes in both portraits, though the jacket is a different colour. It is quite possible that Vincent painted the jacket bright yellow by choice, to achieve a particular colour effect in combination with the background.
He had already used contrasting colours in the first portrait of Armand: the bow around Armand’s neck now appears white, but it was originally more pink – a subtle contrast with the green background. In the first portrait, Vincent experimented with alternating between tranparent and opaque paint. The breast pocket, for instance, is rendered very faintly. Almost as if it has been rubbed off, so as not to distract from Armand’s introspective gaze.
The third portrait of Armand is markedly different from the first two. Vincent appears to have painted it in the evening, by gaslight. The painting shares many features with the fourth portrait of Armand's father, Joseph: both have the same flat, bright yellow background, and both show a lack of detail in the hair and face. Armand’s moustache is now rendered as a smudge, with the individual hairs seen in the earlier portraits no longer visible. In the fourth portrait of Joseph Roulin, Vincent treated the beard in a similar way.
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 47,5 × 39 cm, private collection. Photo: P. Schaelchli
Vincent van Gogh, Joseph Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 65 × 54 cm, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Gift of the Heirs of Georg Reinhart, 1955. Photo: SIK-ISEA, Zürich, Martin Stollenwerk
After Joseph was transferred to Marseille, it took some time before the family could be together again. Armand moved with his mother, younger brother and sister to Lambesc, to stay with their grandmother. He (or his mother) took the second portrait with him – Vincent’s gesture of thanks for posing as his model.
In Lambesc, Armand started work as a blacksmith, and enlisted in the army in 1890. He later served as a police officer, and then as a peacekeeper in Tunisia, where he lived for many years. Armand married twice, and passed away in Nice in 1945.
Photo of Armand Roulin at the age of 50, 1921
In the next part, you’ll learn more about the three portraits that Vincent van Gogh painted of Armand’s younger brother, 11-year-old Camille.