Thesis on "Madame Roulin and Her Baby by Vincent Van Gogh"

Thesis 6 pages (2008 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

These are the hands that carry the child. Van Gogh is telling the story of the mother's work, her labor in raising children, and the sacrifices she makes in order to do so. Rather than suggesting Madame Roulin is emotionally distant, Van Gogh portrays her as being quite the opposite. She has devoted her life to caring for her child and has sublimated her personal needs and even her beauty so that her child can thrive.

Using the Roulins as proxies for his own relationship with his mother, Van Gogh projects his ambivalent but thoughtful cognitions and feelings related to motherhood onto the canvas. There is both distance and closeness between the two figures. The mother has worked hard, suggestive not only of the burdens of parenting but also of the labors of the working class family. Van Gogh remained ever passionate about depicting real life in all the totality of its hardships, and not an idealized portrait of bourgeois life like the Impressionists before him. Millet inspired Van Gogh to pursue an honest, authentic approach to portraiture.

If the painting seems rough in places, it would have been Van Gogh's intent. Life, especially working class life, is never smooth. The vicissitudes of life, with all its deepest love, joy, pain, and suffering, can be distilled into core elements symbolized by the simple relationship between mother and child. Madame Roulin is not just on the sidelines; she has entered into a phase of her life in which her children take precedence over all else. In fact, eemingly "unfinished" elements appear on the baby as well. For example, contrary to the mother's distinct hands, the baby's appear blurry. Van Gogh may be hinting at the fact that the child has a lot of growing to do; she is "unfinished" as a human being. Lubin suggests "the mother holds the stiff, awkward child at a distance, as if she were afraid to cuddle him," but in fact, the baby appears comfortable and relaxed (Lubin 6). The baby does not cry at the way she is held. Her peaceful visage is pointed and intelligent. The baby's hand dangles at the mother's bosom, too, implying the physical and emotional bond they share.

In "Mother Roulin and Her Baby," Van Gogh deliberately capitalizes on contrast and juxtaposition to convey autobiographical content. Color and brush stroke are at once simple and complex, as is the relationship between mother and child. The Roulin family inspired Van Gogh to take a deeper look at his own childhood, which in turn allowed him to produce the vivid and remarkable portraits of the Roulin family.

Works Cited

Art Institute of Chicago. "Analysis: Van Gogh's Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle.." Retrieved online: http://www.artic.edu/aic/resources/resource/274

Hulsker, Jan. "Van Gogh, Roulin and the Two Arlesiennes: Part One." The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 134, No. 1074.

Lubin, Albert J. Stranger on the Earth. DaCapo, 1996.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle." Retrieved online: http://www.philamuseum.org/doc_downloads/education/object_resources/52064.pdf

Van Gogh, Vincent. "Madame Roulin and Her Baby." Painting, 1888.

Winer, Jerome A.… READ MORE

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