约瑟夫·鲁林肖像

Joseph Roulin sorted mail at the railway station in Arles, in the south of France, and he became one of Van Gogh's closest friends there. When Van Gogh collapsed in the winter of 1888 and cut his own ear, it was Roulin who looked after him and kept writing to his brother Theo about how he was doing. Van Gogh painted this portrait in early 1889, after that crisis, one of six he made of the postman. Roulin sits in his blue uniform with its brass buttons, his great beard curling, set against a background of flowers Van Gogh invented, roses and daisies and cornflowers scrolling behind him. He painted the face and beard in bold, stylised curls but kept the flowers fairly precise. By then Roulin had taken a better-paid post in Marseille and was about to leave Arles for good.