Dear Friends,

It is an exciting time to be at the MFA as this spring we open the remarkable exhibition “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits” in the Gund Gallery. Paintings from around the world allow us to share with you the unforgettable story of Vincent van Gogh’s late-in-life journey in February 1888 to southern France, where he settled in the town of Arles to paint with a renewed spirit. It was a place, he wrote, “where there’s even more color and even more sun,” and where he immersed himself in the project of portraiture, painting those he felt closest to, his best friend’s family.

Presented in partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the exhibition premieres at the MFA—its only US venue—and gives visitors an exceptional, intimate look at Van Gogh’s paintings of the family of his friend, the postman Joseph Roulin. Portrayed in bold colors, vivid patterns, and with immense feeling, the paintings have much to say about Van Gogh’s friendships and connections during this period of great creativity and innovation. At the time he wrote of his ambition to depict his “model’s thoughts and soul,” his desire to connect with others, centering the idea of community. In some ways these are portraits of comfort and yearning, portraits of a warm embrace.

Our collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum—a valued and wonderful partner—brings together treasures from both institutions, the famous portraits of the postman and his family. The idea for this exhibition began with a connection between two curators: Katie Hanson, the MFA’s William and Ann Elfers Curator of Paintings, and Nienke Bakker, senior curator at the Van Gogh Museum. They came together to research two of the most important paintings in our European collection, Van Gogh’s Postman Joseph Roulin (1888) and Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse) (1889).

From that commitment to scholarship, they considered the possibility of gathering portraits of all the Roulins, uniting Joseph and Augustine with their children Armand, Camille, and baby Marcelle—a family reunion! This idea grew quickly, and ambitiously, to include portraits of the Roulins from the collections of the Van Gogh Museum and other institutions, as well as masterworks by other artists—from Rembrandt and Hals to Gauguin, Bernard, and Millet, to Kunichika and Kunisada—that reveal the roots of Van Gogh’s artistic inspirations and influences. “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits,” glorious at every turn, tells a new and compelling story of Van Gogh’s emotional and artistic search to connect with the family who helped guide his last years.

Here visitors can see the full flowering of Van Gogh’s artistic aspirations and the intensity of his focus, due perhaps to his very deep bonds with the postman and his family. Through the artist’s gestures and choice of color and line, energy and emotion flow from his paintings, conveying an immediacy of feeling. In Self-Portrait (1889), from the National Gallery of Art, Van Gogh intently looks at the viewer, palette and brushes in hand, determined to continue his project, imbuing his brushstrokes with something of the bursting emotion of his own thoughts and desire.

We invite you to enjoy “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits” and related programs at the MFA. In this first exhibition to explore Van Gogh’s remarkable relationship with the Roulins, treasure these moments to be up close with one of the greatest of all artists with intimacy and joyful discovery.

Matthew Teitelbaum
Ann and Graham Gund Director

Select Past Director’s Messages

• Letter from Boston Museum Directors in Support of the NEA
• MFA Director on Black Lives Matter