Baby Marcelle Roulin, The

Van Gogh's Baby Marcelle Roulin from 1888 is among the most tender of his Arles figure paintings, depicting the infant daughter of his friend the postman Joseph Roulin. Van Gogh painted the baby with the same direct, respectful attention he gave to adult subjects — the child is not sentimentalized but observed. He made at least two versions of this portrait, giving the paintings as gifts to the Roulin family. The image of the infant — surrounded by the decorative floral background he used for all the Roulin family portraits — has a quality of genuine affection that distinguishes it from mere genre painting. The work is currently in a private collection.

The baby is depicted in the frontal pose Van Gogh used for the family portrait series, the floral background behind creating the decorative, almost iconic quality of these works. His palette for the baby's face is warm and delicate, the skin rendered with unusual softness compared to his adult portraits. The decorative background is painted with Van Gogh's characteristic pattern energy.