La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle; Augustine-Alix Pellicot Roulin, 1851–1930)

La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle; Augustine-Alix Pellicot Roulin, 1889) by Vincent van Gogh is an oil on canvas painting created during the artist’s stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy. This compelling portrait depicts Madame Augustine Roulin, the wife of his friend, the Arles postman Joseph Roulin, whom Gogh frequently painted. The French title, which translates to "The Woman Rocking a Cradle," refers to the symbolic nature of the piece, intended by the artist to evoke the comfort and warmth of a lullaby.

Gogh utilized a highly personalized, Post-Impressionist technique characterized by thick impasto and expressive, energized brushwork. The portrait centers the woman’s solemn face against a brilliant, decorative background dominated by swirling, stylized flowers and vibrant blocks of color. The artist’s deliberate use of saturated color pairs—including intense reds and complementary greens—was designed to visualize emotional intensity, reflecting his belief that color should express feeling rather than strict realism.

This work is one of five versions of the portrait that Gogh painted, which he intended to form part of a triptych alongside his own self-portrait and that of his friend, Joseph Roulin. The intensity and formal rigor of this specific canvas cemented its importance in the artist's late career. It currently resides in the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it serves as a crucial example of the portraits Gogh created during this difficult period. Although the original painting is housed in the museum, high-quality prints of this iconic masterwork are widely distributed, often stemming from public domain archives.