Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La berceuse)
INV-2794
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)1889
Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La berceuse)
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) →Post-Impressionism19th centurynineteenth centuryoil on canvasdutch
Date
1889
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
92.7 × 73.8 cm (36 1/2 × 29 1/2 in.); Framed: 111.9 × 91.8 × 8.3 cm (44 1/16 × 36 1/8 × 3 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
Vincent van Gogh saw in Augustine Roulin—along with her husband, Joseph, and their children—a model of love and family life. In this portrait, Roulin rocks a cradle by pulling on a rope. The title La Berceuse (the lullaby) suggests a consoling figure, and the artist described his palette as a soothing “lullaby in colors.”
Van Gogh painted five versions of this image. He completed this one in January 1889, soon after returning from his stay in the hospital following Paul Gauguin’s fraught departure. Madame Roulin sits in Gauguin’s chair, an attempt by Van Gogh to fill the space left by the older artist. In May 1889, Van Gogh gave this canvas to Gauguin as a gesture of reconciliation and friendship, instructing that it be hung between two paintings of sunflowers.
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