Porträt des Armand Roulin

In the autumn of 1888, lonely in Arles, van Gogh more or less adopted the family of the local postman, Joseph Roulin, and painted them one by one. This is the eldest son, Armand, 17 and already working as a blacksmith's apprentice, sat down in his good yellow jacket against a flat green so the two colours push against each other. He looks off to the side, a little uneasy, the way a young man does when he is told to hold still. Van Gogh painted him twice within days, and it was this version the Roulins themselves preferred. A few weeks after these sittings came the December night when van Gogh cut his ear, and Joseph Roulin was among the few who stood by him.