Amazing story about Van Gogh’s Guardian Angel

During the toughest and most intense periods of his life, the impressive painter was supported by all his soulmates, Joseph Lulin and Ares’ mailman. The new exhibition explores this intimate friendship and how it benefited art history.

On December 23, 1888, the day Vincent van Gogh had amputated his ear and presented the part that had been amputated to the sex worker, he belonged to his unlikely soulmate, Postman Jose Flulin.

A rare stability figure of Van Gogh’s mentally turbulent 2 years in Arles, southern France, Lulin assured him that he would be taken care of in a mental hospital, and wrote him a letter to the artist’s brother Theo to visit him while he was there to update his condition. He paid Van Gogh’s rent while he was being cared for and spent the whole day with him when he was discharged two weeks later. “Lulin… there’s quiet gravity and kindness to me, just as the old man might have for the younger soldiers,” Van Gogh said. I wrote it on Theo The following April, he described Lulin as “so good, so smart, so emotional.”

It is an exhibition to respect this inspiring relationship Van Gogh: Portrait of the Roulin Familywhich opened in MFA Boston, USA on March 30, before moving to a joint organization. Van Gogh MuseumAmsterdam, October. This is the first exhibition dedicated to portraits of all five members of the Roulin family. It features over 20 paintings by Van Gogh, along with works from important influences on Dutch artists, including 17th-century Dutch masters. Rembrandt Franz Hals and the French Artist Paul GauguinI lived with Van Gogh of Arles for two months.

“A lot of what I wanted in this exhibition is human stories,” co-curator Katie Hanson (MFA Boston) told the BBC. “The exhibition emphasizes that Lulin is not a model for him. This was the man who he formed a very deep bond of friendship.” The turbulent relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin and the fallout between them, which are likely likely to have been sedimented. Ear Incidenttended to overshadow his story, but Lulin offered something more constant and less complicated. We see this in the portrait – the open integrity of him returning Van Gogh’s gaze, and the mutual respect and love that radiates from the canvas.

Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles in February 1888. He believes that bright light and intense colours will improve his art, and the Southerns painted the ideal subject, with the appearance being “more artistic”. Hanson emphasizes Van Gogh’s “openness to possibilities” at this point, and it still has a connection that his feelings are a new face in town. “We don’t have to hit the work of life on our first attempt, and we may be looking for the next place, which is the next direction,” she says. And in this spirit, Van Gogh,Big heart“We welcomed the new connection.

It’s so well known now before moving to the yellow house next door internal and OutsideVan Gogh rented a room above Café de la Guerre. The bar was frequently visited by Joseph Lulin. Joseph Lulin lived on the same street and worked at a nearby train station and overseeing the loading of posts. Though he feels his strength lies in the portrait, he struggles to find people posing for him, Van Gogh was pleased when the distinctive mailman who had drunk a significant portion of his income in the cafe agreed to pose for him and be paid only for food and drinks.

Between August 1888 and April 1889, Van Gogh is a six-portrait of Lulin, a symbol of dating, and hopes to contrast its motif. Loneliness, despair and Impending fate You can see it in some of his other works. In each, Lulin is dressed in his blue postal worker uniform, decorated with gold buttons and blades, and the word “post” proudly appears on his cap. Lulin’s stocky nose and crude complexion were washed away by years of drinking, making it an attractive muse for the painter. I explained him As “a man that’s more interesting than many people.”

Lulin was 12 years older than Van Gogh, but he became the figure of guidance and father to the lonely painter. Because of Lulin’s generous whiskers and apparent wisdom, Van Gogh was called Socrates. Born into a wealthy family, Van Gogh belonged to a very different social class than Lulin, but was taken with him.Strong peasant nature“And tolerance when times were difficult. Lulin was proud, a gar Republican, and when Van Gogh saw him sing. Lamarsailers, He noticed He “like something from Delacroix, something like Daumier.” He saw the spirit of a man working within him, Explain his voice Like having the “far echo of the revolutionary French Clarion.”

The friendship quickly opened the door to four more sitters. He has three children, Augustine, Lulin’s wife. We meet our 17 year old son Armand. This wears traces of his first facial hair, making the painter’s attention seem uneasy. His younger brother, Kamille, an 11-year-old male student, described in the exhibition catalogue as “shaking his chair.” And the couple’s chubby cheek baby, Marcel Lulin writes“Make the whole house happy.” Each painting represents a different stage in life, and each sitter was presented with a portrait. In total, Van Gogh created 26 portraits of Roulins, an important production volume for one family.

Van Gogh once wanted to be a father and husband, so his relationship with the Lulin family made him experience some of that joy. in Letter to Theohe explained that Roulin is playing with Baby Marcelle. Outside these walls, Van Gogh often experienced hostility from the locals. Locals even petitioned him for confinement, describing him as a “redheaded madman.” In contrast, Lulin accepted his mental illness, and their home provided a place of safety and understanding.

However, the relationship was far from one-sided. This educated visitor, with his unusual Dutch accent, offered “a different kind of interaction,” Hanson explains, unlike anyone Lulin has met before. “He’s new in town, and is the first time Roulin’s story, and is able to tell a new story.” Roulin enjoys providing advice to, for example, the furniture of a yellow house. In the summer of 1888, when Madame Lulin returned to her hometown to deliver Marcel’s Lulin, she left and found Van Gogh Welcome Company.

Lulin also had an unusual opportunity to paint portraits for free. It comforted him The baby Marcel could still see his portrait hanging over her cradle. His love for Van Gogh shines through their communications. “Continue to take care of yourself and follow the advice of your good doctor, you will see your full recovery for the satisfaction of your relatives and your friends.” He wrote to him From Marseille, sign off: “Marcel will send you a big kiss.”

Van Gogh’s portrait put him in the centre of his family home. With his five versions La Barceusmeaning both “baby” and “woman rocking the cradle”, Mme Roulin held a device of strings made by Van Gogh, allowing it to rock the baby’s cradle over the canvas, allowing the pair to complete peace. The joyful background color of green, blue, yellow and red varies from family to family. A frenzied floral background reserved for parents comes later and conveys happiness and affection.

Art history also benefits greatly from the freedom this relationship gave to Van Gogh to experiment with portraits and to develop his own style with its depicted shapes, bold and sparkling colors, and thick wavy strokes that vibrate the shapes with life. In the safety of this friendship, he overturns portrait practices, prioritizes emotional responses to his subject, and, rather than resolving “not rendering what I have in front of my eyes,” he “forces myself,” and paints Lulin; He told Theo“Let me feel him.”

If Van Gogh had not felt Lulin’s unwavering support, he might not have survived the series of catastrophic breakdowns that began in December 1888 when he brought a razor to his ear. Taking care of those close to him, he lived for another 19 months, producing an astounding 70 paintings in his past 70 days, leaving behind one of the most precious legacies in art history.

An optimistic exhibition course, like the intimate portrait he created with Arles. “I hope that being with these works of art and exploring his creative process and his ways of creating connections will be a heartwarming story,” says Hanson. She says that it is far from “away from grief” in this era of Van Gogh’s life, and the exhibition testifies to the power of supportive relationships and the “reality in which sadness and hope can coexist.”