Portrait of Camille Roulin

Camille Roulin was the youngest child of Joseph Roulin, the Arles postman who became one of Van Gogh's closest friends and most frequent subjects during 1888. Van Gogh painted all five members of the Roulin family, producing one of the most intimate group portraits of Post-Impressionism. He was drawn to the Roulin children in particular, painting Camille and his siblings with a tenderness he rarely directed at adult subjects. The portraits were made during the last months before his breakdown, when the Roulin family represented stability and ordinary human warmth. Van Gogh wrote that working with such subjects gave him more pleasure than any other kind of painting.

Rendered against a flat green background, the portrait uses short, densely packed strokes to build up the child's face. The application is careful and gentle compared to Van Gogh's more agitated late works, with color used expressively rather than naturalistically.