La Berceuse
He kept designing what others would feel on seeing his pictures — only the "others" grew harder and harder to have present.
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F504 La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin) 1889 -
F505 La Berceuse (third version) 1889 -
F506 La Berceuse (second version) 1889 -
F507 La Berceuse (fourth version) 1889 -
F508 La Berceuse (first version) 1889
Painting
Five versions. The same mother — Augustine Roulin — wears green and has orange-red hair. Both hands hold a cradle cord that leads towards a cradle outside the frame. Decorative floral wallpaper places green, orange and pink side by side. Colour and detail vary across the versions, like repeated attempts at the same song.
Letter
In January 1889 he wrote to Theo about conversations with Gauguin on the isolation of Icelandic fishermen. He imagined sailors seeing La Berceuse in their cabin and feeling rocked, reminded of their own lullabies. He then described the painting: a woman dressed in green with orange hair against a green background with pink flowers. In another letter he called the work an attempt at a little music of colour.
Place
Arles. Augustine Roulin was the postman Joseph's wife and the mother of baby Marcelle. Van Gogh had started the first La Berceuse before his injury, which left its hands unfinished. After leaving hospital he resumed it and later made further versions. The baby is not in the painting; the cord in Augustine's hands brings the unseen cradle into view.
In the summer of 1888 Madame Roulin had her third child, Marcelle. He wanted to paint her keeping watch beside the cradle.
Five versions are known. An early-May 1889 consignment to Theo included four of them; in May Vincent proposed that Theo give versions to Gauguin and Bernard. He imagined La Berceuse hung at the far end of a fishing boat's cabin, and placed it between two Sunflowers in a proposed triptych.
Gauguin had already left Arles. The triptych survives as a letter sketch and a proposal for arranging existing canvases.
Events
- The Copyist · Letter 739
In a letter to Gauguin on 21 January, he wrote that he had resumed the portrait of Augustine Roulin, whose hands had remained unfinished because of his injury.
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 739
In the same letter he imagined placing the painting in an Icelandic fishing boat, where sailors might feel a lullaby in it.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 743
In his letter to Theo on 28 January, he described green clothes, orange hair and pink flowers on green, with muted reds and greens softening the sharper colours.
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 745
Writing to Theo on 3 February, he said there was perhaps an attempt at a little music of local colour in La Berceuse, while also judging it badly painted.
From the Letters
Et je crois que si on plaçait cette toile telle quelle dans un bateau de pêcheurs même d’Islande il y en aurait qui sentiraient là-dedans la berceuse. And I believe that if one placed this canvas just as it is in a boat, even one of Icelandic fishermen, there would be some who would feel the lullaby in it.
Une femme vêtue de vert à cheveux orangé se détâche contre un fond vert à fleurs roses. A woman dressed in green with orange hair stands out against a green background with pink flowers.
Peut etre dans la berceuse il y a un essai de petite musique de couleur d’ici Perhaps in the Berceuse there is an attempt at a little music of colour from here.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org