Portrait of Armand Roulin

In the autumn of 1888 Van Gogh was in Arles, in the south of France, short of money and short of models. He had befriended the local postman, Joseph Roulin, a big, bearded republican, and ended up painting the whole family, the parents and their three children, one after another. This is Armand, the eldest son, who was 17. Van Gogh made two portraits of him that season. He was working fast in these months, turning out portrait after portrait, and it was only weeks later, in December, that he cut off part of his own ear. The Roulins stayed loyal through it. Joseph visited him in hospital and kept writing to him after Vincent left Arles.