Baby Marcelle Roulin

Baby Marcelle Roulin, painted in late 1888 and now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, depicts the infant daughter of Joseph Roulin — the Arles postal worker whose entire family Van Gogh painted in a remarkable series that winter. Roulin was one of Van Gogh's few genuine friends in Arles, and Van Gogh painted him, his wife Augustine, and their children Armand, Camille, and the baby Marcelle multiple times. The series of baby portraits reduces portraiture to its simplest elements: a small bundled figure, a face just beginning to individuate, the utter vulnerability of infancy. Van Gogh painted several versions of this subject, including one for Gauguin.

Oil on canvas with a simplified, flat composition suited to the infant subject — the baby's round face and bundled form rendered with gentle strokes against a plain or patterned background. Van Gogh's portraits of the Roulin family avoid the harsh intensity of some of his Arles work, approaching the infant with a softer touch appropriate to the subject.