67 VINCENT VAN GOGH As recorded in a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent sent this drawing on August 3, Dutch, 1853­1890 1888, to the Impressionist painter John Russell. It is one of Vincent's many painted Portrait of Joseph Roulin and drawn portraits of Joseph Roulin, the postman who became the artist's devoted Reed and quill pens and brown ink friend during his residence in Aries in 1888/89. Although the drawing is based on a and black chalk painting (Detroit, private collection), it is very different from the painting, due in no 32 x 24.4 cm (12 x 9 in.) Cat. I, no. 106; 85.GA.299 small measure to the power and variety of its line work. It is a deeply sympathetic portrayal. The postman's rugged face is alive with dynamically converging curves and facets, articulated by exploratory hatching and stippling. The only feature that diverges from the emphatic frontality of the figure is the sideward gaze of the widely set eyes surrounded by luminous blank paper. With dark, thick lines rendered by a reed pen, the artist has delineated the cap, beard, and coat. The circularity of the cap is carried through in the coat, with the hatching of its two sides seemingly pulled downward by the large button, which acts as a fulcrum at the base of the lapels. The background is drawn with a quill pen and contains a patchwork of nervous, intersecting lines that create an overall surface tension and reinforce the energy emanating from the sitter. Van Gogh wrote in his letters that he regarded Roulin as a Socratic figure. This comes through clearly in the present drawing, which portrays him as a powerful presence, an unselfconscious man, both humble and enlightened. 82 DUTCH AND FLEMISH SCHOOLS