The Roulin Family: Who Is Who?
Continue reading
Joseph Roulin (1841-1903)
Joseph Roulin was born on 4 April 1841 in Lambesc, which is in the south of France about 60 km east from Arles. He married Augustine on 31 August 1868. Together they head four children: Armand, Camille, Marcelle, and Cornélie.
In the summer of 1888 Joseph Roulin was working as a postman at Arles railway station. His official job title was brigadier-chargeur, which meant he was responsible for loading and unloading the post that was transported by train.
A few months before, Vincent van Gogh had moved to Arles. He regularly sent paintings to his brother Theo in Paris. It is likely that this is how he got to know Joseph Roulin there, or in the Café de la Gare near the station.
The two men often met at the café and soon became friends. Roulin had a striking appearance with his large beard and uniform adorned with gold-coloured buttons. Joseph first posed for Vincent on the day his daughter Marcelle was born. Vincent painted his portrait six times.
Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about Joseph:
‘Now I’m working with another model, a postman in a blue uniform with gold trimmings, a big, bearded face, very Socratic. A raging republican, like père Tanguy. A more interesting man than many people.’
Joseph Roulin became a particularly good loyal and supportive friend to Vincent just before Christmas 1888. Things weren’t going well for Vincent. He was tired and tense. After a big argument with the artist Paul Gauguin, Vincent got so upset that he cut off his left ear and was taken to hospital. Joseph visited him as often as he could and kept in touch with Theo, Vincent’s brother.
In January 1889, Joseph was being transferred to Marseille. Augustine and the children temporarily moved in with her mother in Lambesc. Van Gogh wrote about this on 17 January 1889:
‘Roulin’s going to leave, and as early as the 21st, he’s going to be employed in Marseille. The increase in salary is minimal, and he’ll have to leave his wife and his children for a while, who won’t be able to follow him until much later because the expenses of a whole family would be heavier in Marseille.’
Joseph retired from the postal service at the age of 55 and then worked as a metalworker. He died in Marseille in 1903. He was 62 years old.
Vincent van Gogh, Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 81.3 × 65.4 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Joseph Roulin at the age of 60 or 61, 1902
Augustine Roulin (1851-1930)
Augustine was born on 9 October 1851 in Lambesc and died on 5 April 1930. She was 78 years old.
Augustine was well into her pregnancy when Vincent started painting her husband’s portrait at the end of July 1888. She had returned to Lambesc to give birth in her parents’ house. Their sons Armand and Camille were with her. Their daughter Marcelle was born on 31 July.
That day Vincent wrote to his sister Willemien:
‘I’m now working on the portrait of a postman with his dark blue uniform with yellow.[...] His wife gave birth today and so he’s in really fine feather and glowing with satisfaction.’
At the end of August, Augustine returned to Arles with her three children.
In late November, her husband Joseph posed for Van Gogh again, followed by Augustine and her children. After Vincent had painted two portraits of Augustine with four-month-old Marcelle on her lap, he wanted to paint a portrait of her as la berceuse. That’s the French word for ‘lullaby’ and also for the woman who rocks the cradle.
Vincent wasn’t so much aiming for a close likeness of Augustine, but rather for a symbol of motherhood. He thought she was the perfect model for this. In total, he painted five versions of Augustine as la berceuse.
In 1897, Augustine and Joseph had another daughter: Cornélie. After Joseph died in 1902, Augustine returned to her birthplace of Lambesc with her daughters Marcelle and Cornélie. They lived there in the house that Augustine had inherited from her parents. Cornélie died young in 1904, and Marcelle left home in 1908 when she got married. Augustine lived with her son Camille for a long time.
After Camille’s death in 1922, Augustine moved to Paris. There she lived with Marcelle until her death in 1930.
Vincent van Gogh, Augustine Roulin (La Berceuse), 1889, oil on canvas, 92.7 × 72.7 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of John T. Spaulding, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Augustine Roulin at the age of 70, 1921
Armand Roulin (1871-1945)
Armand was born on 5 May 1871. He was Joseph and Augustine’s eldest son. When he was 17, Vincent van Gogh painted three portraits of him. At the time, Armand was an apprentice to a blacksmith.
After his father Joseph was transferred to Marseille, it took some time before the family could be together again. Armand moved with his mother, younger brother Camille and sister Marcelle to Lambesc, to stay with their grandmother.
In Lambesc, Armand worked as a blacksmith, and in 1890 he joined the army. He then became a police officer, and later a peacekeeper in Tunisia, where he lived for many years. Armand married twice, and died in Nice in 1945, aged 74.
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, Museum Folkwang, Essen
Armand Roulin at the age of 50, 1921
Camille Roulin (1877-1922)
Camille was Joseph and Augustine’s second son. He was born on 10 july 1877, and was 11 years old when Vincent van Gogh painted him.
He helped his dad write letters to Theo van Gogh when Vincent was in hospital, and later to Vincent when he was living in Saint-Rémy. Joseph made a lot of spelling mistakes, so Camille often wrote the letters for him.
In 1890 Camille joined the navy, and later the army. In 1905, he returned to Lambesc, where he moved in with his mother after Marcelle’s marriage in 1908. He worked as a bricklayer for a while and helped rebuild the village after a major earthquake in 1909.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Camille was sent to the front. Two years later, he was discharged on medical grounds. He died in 1922 at the age of 44 as a result of tuberculosis contracted during the war.
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Camille Roulin, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Camille at the age of 32 in 1909
Marcelle Roulin (1888-1980)
Marcelle was the youngest child of Joseph and Augustine when Vincent van Gogh got to know the family. She was born on 31 July 1888 and was only a few months old when Vincent painted her portraits. He painted a total of five portraits of Marcelle: twice with her mother and three times on her own.
Marcelle married in 1908, moved to Paris with her husband and had a daughter called Rose-Renée (1911-1996). Marcelle eventually returned to the south of France with her daughter, where she died on 22 February 1980 at the age of 91.
Marcelle was the only Roulin child who had a child of her own. Her daughter Rose-Renée didn’t have any children, making her the last descendant of Joseph and Augustine Roulin’s family.
Vincent van Gogh, Marcelle Roulin, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Marcelle Roulin at the age of 67 in 1955. On the mantlepiece, there are framed reproductions of paintings of Marcelle’s parents: The Postman (MFA Boston) and La Berceuse.
What happened to the portraits?
To thank them for posing, Vincent van Gogh gave each Roulin family member a portrait. Ten years after Van Gogh’s death, Joseph Roulin sold the five portraits, along with two landscapes and a still life by Van Gogh, to the art dealer Ambroise Vollard.
Joseph received 450 francs for those eight paintings. That was a pittance, because ten years earlier Anna Boch had paid 400 francs for a single Van Gogh painting. Roulin had no idea about the value of the artworks. Vollard knew what they were worth, though, and he seized his opportunity. Joseph apparently needed the money badly, as he had only a meagre pension and poor health.
The 26 portraits that Vincent van Gogh made of the Roulin family were scattered all over the world. They ended up in museums in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil and the United States. A few works ended up in private collections.
Two portraits, one of Camille and one of Marcelle, have always remained with the Van Gogh family and are now part of the Van Gogh Museum collection.
Sign up for more in-depth stories
Would you like to learn more about the Roulin family and the portraits Vincent van Gogh painted of them? Sign up for the email special and receive five in-depth stories in your inbox.