Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

====Portraits====
{{See also|Portraits by Vincent van Gogh|Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series)|Van Gogh's family in his art}}

Van Gogh said portraiture was his greatest interest. "What I'm most passionate about, much much more than all the rest in my profession", he wrote in 1890, "is the portrait, the modern portrait."<ref>{{Cite web |title=879 (883, W22): To Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890. - Vincent van Gogh Letters |url=https://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html#translation |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.vangoghletters.org}}</ref> It is "the only thing in painting that moves me deeply and that gives me a sense of the infinite."{{sfnp|van Uitert|1981|loc= 242}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let652/letter.html Letter 652]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 31 July 1888.}} He wrote to his sister that he wished to paint portraits that would endure, and that he would use colour to capture their emotions and character rather than aiming for photographic realism.{{refn|{{harvp|Channing|Bradley|2007|loc=67}}; {{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let879/letter.html Letter 879]|ps= . Vincent to Willemien van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Thursday, 5 June 1890.}}}} Those closest to Van Gogh are mostly absent from his portraits; he rarely painted Theo, van Rappard or Bernard. The portraits of his mother were from photographs.{{sfnp|McQuillan|1989|loc= 198}}

Van Gogh painted Arles' postmaster Joseph Roulin and his family repeatedly. In five versions of ''La Berceuse'' (''The Lullaby''), Van Gogh painted Augustine Roulin quietly holding a rope that rocks the unseen cradle of her infant daughter. Van Gogh had planned for it to be the central image of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 2004 |title=Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>

<gallery widths="135px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Van Gogh - Bildnis der Mutter des Künstlers.jpeg|alt=A closeup portrait of an elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her left (the viewer's right). She has a pleasant smile and she is dressed in a dark top and she is wearing a hat, in front of a vivid green background.|''Portrait of Artist's Mother'', October 1888, [[Norton Simon Museum of Art]], Pasadena, California
File:Vincent van Gogh - Eugène Boch - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=A closeup portrait of an intense young man well-dressed with suit and tie, facing to his right (the viewer's left), he has a moustache and goatee and he is standing in front of a starry sky in the background.|''[[Eugène Boch]] (The Poet Against a Starry Sky)'', 1888, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris
File:Vincent van Gogh - Portret van de postbode Joseph Roulin.jpg|alt=A portrait of a middle aged man with a moustache and beard seated on a chair facing to his left (the viewer's right). He has a thoughtful look on his face and his hands are free while his left arm rests on a table, he is wearing a dark blue uniform and cap, in front of a pale blue background.|''Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin'' (1841–1903), early August 1888, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 084.jpg|alt=An elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has her hands clasped together on her lap, and she is dressed in a dark top and green dress in front of a vivid flower wallpaper background.|''La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin)'', 1889, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
</gallery>
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