The MFA to Show Van Gogh Roulin Portraits

Collaboration with Van Gogh Museum

By: MFA - Mar 20, 2025

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In 1888 and 1889, during his stay in Arles, in the South of France, Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) forged a cherished friendship with a neighboring family: postman Joseph Roulin; his wife, Augustine; and their three children: Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. During this pivotal time in his life, Van Gogh created 26 intimate portrayals of the working-class family. Organized in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits is the first exhibition devoted to the artist’s deep connection to the family and the making of their portraits. Featuring 23 works by Van Gogh—including 14 of the Roulin portraits—as well as earlier Dutch art and Japanese woodblock prints that inspired him, the exhibition includes iconic works from the MFA’s collection alongside more than 20 key loans from prominent international collections. The exhibition presents 10 letters from Joseph Roulin to Van Gogh and the artist’s siblings together for the first time, offering an intimate and tender look at their friendship. This selection of works provides new insights into Van Gogh’s world and yearning for meaningful connection as he moved to a new city and found himself at a turning point in his life and work.

“The exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to see the full flowering of Van Gogh’s artistic aspirations and the intensity of his focus—a clarity that may have emerged, in part, because of his very deep bonds with the postman and his family,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director. “It tells a new and compelling story of Van Gogh’s emotional and artistic search to make connection to a family who helped guide his last years.”

The exhibition is co-curated by Katie Hanson, William and Ann Elfers Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, at the MFA and Nienke Bakker, Senior Curator at the Van Gogh Museum.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Nienke Bakker on this exhibition dedicated to friendship, family, and connection,” said Hanson. “It features not only Van Gogh’s depictions of the Roulin family, but also works attending to his thinking about those portraits. The MFA’s Roulin portraits are beloved icons of the collection—so part of our aim in this exhibition is to slow down, look more closely, and feel deeply with these magnificent works of art by foregrounding the human story behind them.”

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits is on view at the MFA from March 30 through September 7, 2025 in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery. Timed-entry tickets, which include general admission, are required for all visitors and can be reserved on mfa.org or purchased at the Museum. Member Preview takes place March 26–29. Following the MFA’s presentation, the exhibition will travel to the Van Gogh Museum, where it will be on view from October 3, 2025, through January 11, 2026.

Exhibition Overview

The exhibition is organized in thematic sections, tracing Van Gogh’s friendship with the Roulins, his admiration for his predecessors, his attempt to create a community of fellow artists, and his emotional ties to his supportive family and friends.

The first section, “Sense of Place: The Yellow House in Arles,” provides an immersive look at Arles, where the artist lived from February 1888 to April 1889, and the dwelling he rented in May 1888 to use first as a studio and then as a home. An 1887 self-portrait, completed in Paris as Van Gogh was making plans to move south, radiates the ambition and enthusiasm of the painter as he envisioned a new life in Arles. A map of the town orients visitors along with The Yellow House (The Street) (1888), the artist’s colorful depiction of his home and studio where the Roulin family posed for their portraits. A schematic construction of Van Gogh’s studio within this first gallery provides a sense of scale for visitors of the cozy space in which the artist worked.
Although Van Gogh thought it would be easier to find models and make contacts in Arles than in Paris, even after four months whole days went by without him exchanging a word with anyone. In summer 1888, Van Gogh and Joseph Roulin shared drinks at a café and a deep friendship began—and with it, the opportunity for Van Gogh to practice painting people, something he thought brought out the best in him. “The Postman and Portrait Practice,” a section dedicated to Van Gogh’s best friend in Arles, includes the artist’s earliest depiction of him, the MFA’s Postman Joseph Roulin (1888), as well as two drawings of Roulin. The section is supplemented with portraits by 17th-century Dutch artists from which he drew inspiration, such as Merry Drinker (about 1628–30) by Frans Hals (1582/83–1666) and Portrait of a Family in an Interior (1654) by Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1684), as well as lithographs by Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879).
After completing his first painting of Joseph Roulin in summer 1888, Van Gogh would go on to create a suite of 26 portraits of the five Roulin family members by April 1889. In addition to painting Joseph and Augustine Roulin, he painted their children: three solo portraits each of Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. In the third section, “The Roulin Family,” the entire family is portrayed across four canvases encircling the visitor. A large series of works devoted to the members of a single working-class family is unique not only in Van Gogh’s oeuvre, but also highly unusual in the history of art, suggesting the satisfaction he felt in creating these portraits was both personal and professional.
Van Gogh’s Roulin family portraits were a creative amalgamation of close observation of his beloved friends and of other sources of inspiration. “Creating Community through Art” highlights Van Gogh’s artistic influences, from Japanese printmakers like Toyohara Kunichika and Utagawa Kunisada to Dutch artists including Hals and Rembrandt (1606–1669). This section also situates Van Gogh within the artistic community of his time, featuring works by artist friends Émile Bernard (1868–1941) and Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), the latter of whom shared his Yellow House in Arles for two months in late 1888.
After an argument with Gauguin in December 1888, Van Gogh cut his left ear and was hospitalized. Joseph Roulin visited the artist in the hospital and wrote several letters to Van Gogh’s family, updating them on his condition. Roulin also wrote to Van Gogh for months after the artist pursued residential care in the psychiatric hospital at Saint-Rémy. “Letters from the Postman” presents 10 of these letters, offering an intimate look at the relationship between the artist and his friend.
“Observation and Inspiration” explores how Van Gogh found great potential for art in the people and places around him—starting with what he saw and modifying it to bring forth profound depth of feeling. In addition to the dedicated portraits of Augustine Roulin, Van Gogh included her features in other paintings including The Dance Hall in Arles (1888) and The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt) (1890). A similar combination of vision and imagination characterizes the landscapes Ravine (1889) and Enclosed Field with Ploughman (1889) from the MFA’s collection that Van Gogh painted in Saint-Rémy.
In the final section, “Enduring Legacy: Beyond Arles,” the exhibition comes full circle – ending as it began, with the artist’s own image and a cherished place. Here, visitors encounter Self-Portrait (1889) and The Bedroom (1889), both painted in autumn 1889 in the hospital in Saint-Rémy, as Van Gogh reminisced about his time in Arles a year prior when he focused on the portraits of the Roulin family. Photographs of the Roulins, taken later in their lives, are featured, allowing visitors to see the individuals behind the portraits. The exhibition—and this section especially—explores how the Roulin family, and Van Gogh himself, were immortalized through his art.
The exit foyer of the exhibition serves as a community space for visitors to write and color postcards of the MFA’s Postman and enjoy reading a children’s book and the exhibition’s catalogue. Visitors can also learn more about Van Gogh’s techniques with tactile 3-D prints of detail areas from Van Gogh’s Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse). MFA conservators partnered with Canon Production Printing Canada Inc. and Canon Production Printing Netherlands B.V. to generate the prints, using photogrammetry to create a digital 3-D model of areas from the painting.

Exhibition Collaborators

The MFA’s presentation of Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits has been shaped by input from a cohort of local artists, social workers, poets, and community leaders organized through Table of Voices, the Museum’s initiative for embedding community perspectives into exhibitions. This cohort explored Van Gogh’s quest for belonging and connection, expanding how audiences think about friendship, family, and community. The group included Anthony Febo, Reid Flynn, Rev. Dr. Stephanie May, Quandre Mcghee, Marla McLeod, Genaro Ortega, Heather Ross, and Angela Soo Hoo.

Conservation

In preparation for the exhibition, MFA conservators were given an unprecedented amount of time to examine Van Gogh’s Postman Joseph Roulin and Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse) from the MFA’s collection. The portrait of Augustine Roulin yielded particularly compelling insights about how the painting was made and how it has changed over time.

With digital manipulation, it is now possible to envision what some of Van Gogh’s paintings would have looked like at the time they were painted. Visitors can learn more about these discoveries in the MFA’s Conservation Center located on the third floor of the Museum and through an in depth video on mfa.org.

Publication

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits is accompanied by a catalogue from MFA Publications. Relying on archival material, contemporary criticism, and technical studies, the catalogue features insightful essays on Van Gogh’s practice, beliefs about portraiture, his personal relationship with the Roulins, and his admiration for his contemporaries as well as 17th-century Dutch portraitists, as well as full translations of the 10 letters written by Joseph Roulin to Van Gogh and his family.

MFA Mobile

A multimedia guide on MFA Mobile on Bloomberg Connects allows visitors to explore the historical context of the exhibition, Van Gogh’s artistic influences, a living painter’s perspective on Van Gogh’s work, and more. Available to enjoy at home or at the Museum, this multimedia tour is led by curators, a conservator, and an artist and includes text transcripts and audio descriptions of the art works for visitors who are blind or have low vision.

Public Programs

Visitors can catch a sneak peek of the exhibition before it opens to the public on March 28 at MFA Late Nites (8 pm–1 am)—the Museum’s signature after-hours event.
As part of its Art Docs series, the MFA is screening Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers on Sunday, March 30 and Saturday, May 10. The film focuses on Van Gogh’s transformative years in the South of France, a period when he revolutionized his artistic style. During this time, Van Gogh became intensely driven by a passion for storytelling, transforming the world around him into vibrant, idealized landscapes, and symbolic figures.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the 10-week course Van Gogh: Portraiture, Influence, and Legacy offers an in-depth exploration of his art, influences, and techniques. On Wednesday afternoons from April 2 to June 11, experts in art history, conservation, music, and food provide new insights into the artist’s techniques, materials, enduring artistic influence, and his environment in Provence.
On Thursday, May 15, Susan Alyson Stein, Engelhard Curator of 19th-Century European Painting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, shares how Van Gogh’s influence spread to the U.S. The Robert J. Boardingham Memorial Lecture, Postman Cometh: Van Gogh’s Rise to Fame in America, explores this fascinating history and explains why Van Gogh’s portraits—including those of the Roulin family—were destined for American collections and exhibitions.
In The City Talks: Creativity and the Mind (May 29), mental health practitioners, researchers, and artists discuss the transformative power of art as a healing tool.
Massachusetts residents enjoy free admission to the exhibition during the Museum’s annual Memorial Day Open House (May 26) and Juneteenth celebration (June 19).

Shop

In the MFA Shop, visitors can purchase the exhibition catalogue and an assortment of products exclusive to the MFA. A wide selection of scarves, pillow covers, tote bags, mugs, magnets, and coasters feature Van Gogh’s works from the MFA’s collection including Postman Joseph Roulin, Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse), and Enclosed Field with Ploughman. Van Gogh journals, t-shirts, note cards, umbrellas, hats, jewelry, puzzles, and skateboards are also available.

The MFA has partnered with technology company Endstate who has designed custom NFC-enabled apparel featuring works from the exhibition. The limited-edition collection features three exclusive pieces inspired by the MFA’s iconic works by Van Gogh: a mid-weight graphic t-shirt featuring Enclosed Field with Ploughman (1889), heavy-weight hoodie featuring a large-scale print of Ravine (1889) on the back of the product, and an embroidered cap inspired by Van Gogh’s Postman Joseph Roulin (1888). Each piece in the collection offers item holders exclusive benefits including VIP access to MFA Late Nites on March 28, a private exhibition tour with MFA conservator Lydia Vagts, and access to a behind-the-scenes video of the exhibition’s installation.