“A head something like that of Socrates, almost no nose, a high forehead, a bald pâté, small gray eyes, cheeks full of color, a big beard, pepper and salt, large ears.” It's like that Vincent Van Gogh describe The postal worker Joseph Roulin in a letter of 1888 to his sister, five months after having suddenly led Paris in the south of France in order to follow the traces of artists like Paul Cézanne and Aduphe Monticelli to the port city of Marseille.
But the Provencal city of Arles finally held on the Dutch painter, and during 15 months, Van Gogh produced an abundance of works, capturing country landscapes, potsols in pots, street scenes and its own image. It was also during this period that he became friends with Roulin, the postal employee in blue uniform who quickly became one of his favorite subjects – and whose resemblance is now at the center of a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston.
Van Gogh: Portraits of the Roulin familyExhibited until September 7, plunges into the series of 26 Poitit of the artist focused on Roulin, his wife Augustine and their three children Armand, Camille and Marcelle.
Dispected in the global collections today, most of the paintings will be gathered in the fall with for the first time when the exhibition goes to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The MFA Boston Show is a commemoration of a unique and significant friendship, featuring 14 paintings in the series. Shy, a debilitating asocial and lonely, Van Gogh found a related connection with Roulin who fueled his own work and continued to resonate with him at the end of his life.
“Man is a fervent republican and socialist, reason very well and knows a lot … I prefer to paint a lot like that that flowers,” the artist wrote to his sister.
At the end of December 1888, when the artist underwent a mental break that led to the mutilation of his left ear, Roulin provided his firm support, visiting the hospital every day and keeping Van Gogh's family up to date in his state in a written correspondence which is also included in the program.
After the artist left Arles, the two stayed in touch, Van Gogh giving updates on his health and work, and inquiring with the Roulin family.
“When you have time to honor me with a letter, you will always give me a lot of fun,” wrote Roulin at the end of a letter dated August 1889.
The exhibition also includes the work of the contemporary of Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, who visited the artist in Arles and painted several portraits of the Roulin family, as well as photographs of the Roulins from the beginning of the 20th century. In October, the show will be visited at the Van Gogh museum and will include a life -size replica from Van Gogh's Yellow House Studio, offering an overview of the space where he painted the Roulins.
“(The Roulins) were more than models for him,” said Nienke Bakker, principal curator of the Van Gogh museum, in a statement. “With them, he found the warmth of a family he has never been able to start.”
