Le Bébé Marcelle Roulin

In the winter of 1888 Van Gogh painted his way through an entire family. Joseph Roulin was the postman in Arles who handled Van Gogh's letters and became a real friend, and Van Gogh painted him, his wife Augustine, and all three of their children. This is the youngest, Marcelle, born that July and only a few months old, her round face nearly filling a small canvas against a pale green ground. He made three little portraits of her on her own. It was a hard winter, the same December he cut off part of his own ear, and the warmth of the Roulins, who kept sitting for him, was one of the few steady things he had. Roulin came to visit him in the hospital afterwards.