Vincent van Gogh – La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle; Augustine-Alix Pellicot Roulin, 1851–1930) Metropolitan Museum: part 4

A description of Vincent van Gogh’s painting "Lullaby

The painting "Lullaby" was painted by Van Gogh during a rather difficult time in his life. The painting was created in Arles. By the way, its creation had begun not long before the case, when due to the insanity of his mind he had simply cut off his own ear. This was some time before Gauguin’s departure. But the artist completed his creation after his return from the hospital. The work was not easy, many times Van Gogh rewrote it. And witnesses reported that the master, who had never sung anything before, while painting the canvas often sang long lullabies.

Model for the image in the picture was the wife of a local postal worker Augustine Rulen. At the time of her life, she was one of the few people with whom the artist was in close contact. Van Gogh sincerely believed that the family of this woman - exemplary, just an ideal of healthy family life of the most ordinary people. The master often painted Augustine, her spouse or young children on his canvases.

The painting is predominantly painted in green tones. It is both rich emerald and dark green shades. The gaze of the depicted woman seems pensive and tired, but at the same time concentrated. Snow-white flowers in the garden in the background add freshness to the work. The foreground of the canvas is distinguished by clear straight lines and even the folds of the woman’s skirt seem to be somehow "sharp". But behind her back you can see an ornament of elegantly twisted greenery in fresh, light shades of green.