There is probably no more sacred geography in the art world than the sun-kissed Mediterranean town of Arles in Provence. It was here, in 1888, that Vincent van Gogh—filled with Parisian modernist art theories and ideas—came to rejuvenate himself and plot the next metamorphosis in his oeuvre that we all know and love. Bright colours, explosive skies, Mediterranean blues, portraits, and still life works (such as the sunflower series). He was full of hope, full of optimism, as he invited artists like Gauguin to his newly anointed little Yellow House in the south.
Within a year, that dream turned to horror. Our most iconic imagery of the genius artist driven to madness, by the indifference and ignorance of society, was cemented as Van Gogh—abandoned by Gauguin, broken-hearted in love, loneliness, and absinthe—cut off his ear and delivered it to the prostitute Gabrielle Berlatier in a historic love act of insanity. Staggering through the streets of Arles, severed ear in hand, the town and friends quickly had him committed, and he was placed in an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Although it was a prolific time (150 paintings produced there, with Starry Night and others cementing his style), it eventually led to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he took his life.
On the sidelines of this descent into insanity sat a family that Van Gogh had met in Arles—the Roulin family. Joseph Roulin was a postman at the train station in Arles, in the South of France. He was married to Augustine, and they had three children together: Armand (aged 17), Camille (aged 11), and their baby daughter Marcelle. At the time, Van Gogh was looking to do more portraits and, as such, the Roulins were the perfect selection of models: young, old, male, and female.
These portraits, 26 in all, painted over two years, created some of Van Gogh’s most important portraits, rivalling his self-portraits and the iconic portraits of Doctor Gachet. Joseph, with his blue gold-laced postman’s suit, his iconic curled beard cascading down; Augustine, in her eerie absinthe green; the only child portraits Van Gogh did, showing love and respect for children he’d never have. “This series of portraits shows Van Gogh’s close connection with the Roulin family,” explains Nienke Bakker, Senior Curator at the Van Gogh Museum. “They were more than just models for him. With them, he found the warmth of a family that he was never able to start.”
The exhibition, Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last, was realised in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, home to two key works from the series: Joseph Roulin and La Berceuse. Other loans from the series are from museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kröller-Müller Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and Museum Folkwang in Essen. Featuring more than 20 loans from prominent international collections, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see this series of iconic portraits together for the first time.
On top of that, the Van Gogh Museum goes to the next level and even presents live actors in roles playing Joseph Roulin and Augustine, as well as a reproduction of the famous Yellow House, where Van Gogh tried to form a new art colony in the south, as well as his studio, where he painted the Roulins. Although that studio in the south where artists could congregate and paint in sun and nature tragically never happened, there’s no doubt that the Roulins played a major emotional role in the artist’s turgid life. These portraits show him with his adopted family in living, heartfelt colour, and joy.
‘Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last’ will be on display at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam until 11 January 2026.
