Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent Van Gogh Postcard

Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1889, is a painting of a mature man with long, bushy beard in a blue hat and postal uniform with big gold buttons against a decorative, patterned green wallpaper background with white, yellow, red and blue flowers. While working in Arles in the south of France Van Gogh befriended the postman Roulin, whose family sat for many portrait paintings. With swirling brushstrokes of contrasting colours combined with areas of primary colour flattened against the floral motif background, Van Gogh’s incisive brush captures the inner life and character of the subject. With this mature phase of his Post-Impressionist style, Van Gogh used bold colour to intensify expression and meaning instead of recording what was before his eyes. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and bold, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh's early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.