Postman Joseph Roulin

Van Gogh painted the postman Joseph Roulin at least six times between August 1888 and April 1889, more frequently than any other single sitter in his career, making Roulin the most painted individual in his Arles period. Roulin was a republican and socialist who Van Gogh described to Theo as 'a man more interesting than most' — a working man with strong political convictions and genuine warmth, whose blue postal uniform gave him what Van Gogh saw as a kind of civic dignity equivalent to a military officer's. The series was Van Gogh's most sustained attempt at the kind of serial portraiture he admired in Hals and Rembrandt: the same face returned to repeatedly, each version a new encounter rather than a copy. Writing to Theo, he described wanting his portraits to have something of the 'consoling' quality of old photographs — images that would still speak to people after a hundred years. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The deep Prussian blue uniform is built up in short, parallel brushstrokes that also appear in the background foliage-like marks. The face is modelled with warmer tones — yellow ochre, raw sienna — contrasting with the cool blue. The flowers on the uniform are rendered in rapid impasto touches.