# Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La berceuse)

**Vincent van Gogh** (Dutch, 1853–1890)  
1889  
Oil on canvas  
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.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1926.200. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/27949).

## About this work

Van Gogh saw in Augustine Roulin—along with her husband, Joseph, and their children—a model of love and family life. He completed this work in 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.

_Text from the Art Institute of Chicago._

Vincent van Gogh painted this in 1889, aged 36. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of oil on canvas.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Vincent van Gogh](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/vincent-van-gogh)

Dutch, 1853–1890; born in Zundert; died in Auvers-sur-Oise

Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and lay preacher before he turned to art in 1880, at twenty-seven. His early pictures of Dutch peasants are dark and heavy; in Paris from 1886 he met the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, and his palette brightened. In Arles in 1888–89 he painted with intense colour and thick, directional strokes, and he worked on at the asylum in Saint-Rémy and finally at Auvers-sur-Oise. The Poet’s Garden belongs to a group made to decorate Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Netherlands
- The artist was 36
- Real size: about 36 × 29 in (92 × 73 cm). The 24 × 36 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: portraits: female subject, red (color), green (color), woman with children, interior, chair, flowers, portraits: French subject
- Colour: green
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/116.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/116/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/madame-roulin-rocking-the-cradle-la-berceuse-aic-27949).