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T.F. Chen Cultural Center Post-Van Gogh Retrospective: Happy Joseph Roulin
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| Van Gogh: Matisee: |
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Among Van Gogh’s portraits of his friend, the postman in Arles, " Joseph Roulin sitting in a Cane Chair" (1888) is the largest of them. In that painting, Vincent depicted the bearded, slim man in his blue official suit with golden buckles and embroidered hat. The postman and his wife were among the only friends that Vincent had in Arles. They expressed a caring protectiveness towards the eccentric artist, and he deeply appreciated their kindness. Like Pere Tanguy, Vincent felt a close kinship with Joseph Roulin, and painted four portraits of the postman in the same Buddha-like posture that he had posed Tanguy in. They both appear faced fully towards us with a direct stare; Roulin with flowered wall paper as a backdrop, and Tanguy with Japanese prints behind him. In Chen’s presentation of " Happy Joseph Roulin," this "Socratic" republican sits behind an abundance of fruit upon a table from Paul Cezanne’s " Still life with Curtain, Jug, and Compotier" (1893-4). Behind him, on the blue wall, are portions of two paintings: on the left, Henri Matisse’s landscape, "path in the Bois de Boulogne" (1902) and on the right, Maurice Utrillo’s "Rue Lepic a Montmartre"(1939). The red, green, and yellow fruits in the foreground light up the entire painting, contrasting with the different blues which extend beyond the canvas. The somber yellow-ochre frame together with Matisse’s shadowy trees echo the earthly compotier upon the table ; while between them, poses the noble postman! A narrow rectangular section of Utrillo’s streetscape with its black frame and white buildings accentuates the picture and corresponds to the creamy-white tablecloth in the foreground, keeping the entire painting in balance. The 90 degree edges of the picture frames in the background also make an interesting and necessary contrast to the roundness of the fruits and jug upon the table as well as the soft curves of the postman’s arms and shoulders. All of these contrasting elements produce a harmonious orchestration of balance. Possessing more than twenty portraits of his whole family by Vincent Van Gogh, Joseph Roulin is more than happy to sit among masterpieces, as this artwork by Dr. T. F. Chen reveals.
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