조제프 룰랭

Joseph Roulin ran the post at the railway station in Arles, and Van Gogh, forever mailing paintings north to his brother Theo, came to know him well. The two became close friends, and between the autumn of 1888 and the spring of 1889 Van Gogh painted him six times. This is one of the last, from early 1889, made in the difficult weeks after the breakdown that had put the artist in hospital. Roulin sits in his blue postman's uniform with its gold braid and lettered cap, set against a wallpaper of flowers the painter invented for him, poppies and cornflowers, daisies and roses. Their red, white and blue echo the French tricolour. By the time it was done Roulin had already moved on to a new posting in Marseille.