Paid for by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

MFA Boston debuts first Van Gogh exhibition dedicated to portraits of the Roulin Family

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Joseph Roulin (detail), 1889. Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William A. M. Burden, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rosenberg, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Armand P. Bartos, The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, Mr. and Mrs. Wener E. Josten, and Loula D. Lasker Bequest (all by exchange), 1989. Photo Credit: Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.

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In 1888 and 1889, while living in the South of France, Vincent van Gogh formed 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 focused on the artist’s deep connection to the family and the creation of their portraits. The exhibit features 23 works by Van Gogh, including 14 portraits of the Roulin family, as well as earlier Dutch art and Japanese woodblock prints that inspired him. It includes iconic works from the MFA’s collection and more than 20 key loans from prominent international collections.

The exhibition also 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.

Vincent van Gogh, Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889. Oil on canvas. Bequest of John T. Spaulding.

“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, the MFA’s 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 cocurated 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.”

Vincent van Gogh, The Baby Marcelle Roulin, 1888. Oil on canvas. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation). © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).

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 provides an immersive look at Arles, where the artist lived from February 1888 to April 1889, including the artist’s colorful depiction of his home and studio and an 1887 self-portrait.

Other sections focus on his deep friendship with Joseph Roulin, including letters written between them, his portraits of the entire Roulin family, his sources of artistic inspiration (including Japanese printmakers like Toyohara Kunichika and Dutch artists including Hals and Rembrandt) and an exploration of how Van Gogh found great potential for art in the people and places around him.

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 during his stay at a hospital in Saint-Rémy, as Van Gogh reminisced about his time a year prior when he focused on the portraits of the Roulin family.

Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888. Oil on canvas. Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Acquired with the collection of D. G. Van Beuningen. Photography: Studio Tromp.

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.

Vincent van Gogh, The Schoolboy (The Postman’s Son—Boy in Cap), 1888. Oil on canvas. Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Doação (Gift) Seabra Cia. de Tecidos, Anderson-Clayton and Co., Egídio Câmara, Mário de Almeida, Usineiros do Nordeste, Geremia Lunardelli, Alberto Soares Sampaio, Cia. Souza Cruz, Guilherme Guinle, Francisco Pignatari, Cia. Siderúrgica Belgo-Mineira S.A., Louis Ensch, Jules Verelst, Cápua & Cápua S.A., 1952. MASP.00112.

Sponsors

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits is sponsored by Bank of America. Generously supported by the Abrams Foundation, Penny Vinik, the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, and Barbara M. Eagle. Additional support comes from Cathy Minehan, Barbara and Michael Schaefer, Emi M. and William G. Winterer, the Cordover Exhibition Fund, the MFA Associates / MFA Senior Associates Exhibition Endowment Fund, and the Ellen and Robert Jaffe Fund. Organized in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Supported in part by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Media partner is WCVB Channel 5 Boston.