Van Gogh and Roulin, The story of a friendship in the portraits that can be seen in Boston – World

World – “I made the portraits of a whole family, those of the postman whose head I had already signed, the man, his wife, the boy, the boy and the sixteen -year -old son, all characters and very French, although the first has the appearance of a Russian. “ This was how Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter from 1888 about those who were probably the only friends who had in Arles.
And in fact, Vincent made friends with the Roulin family that same year, during his stay in the Bright Provencal Town, a radius of light in the Arles Company where the painter, constantly tormented and with a precarious mental balance, was the “fou-rou” for some fellow citizens (the crazy red).
The postman Joseph, his wife Augustine and the three children, Armand, Camille and Marcelle, were made important topics of the 26 intimate portraits made by the painter. This family of employees will lead the guests of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to discover the exhibition Van Gogh: The Roulin Family PortraitsOrganized in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the first dedicated to the deep band of the artist with the family of workers.

The support point of the route is perhaps the most famous portrait of Joseph Roulin, Pearl of the Museum of Fine Arts Collection, which displays the narrow postman in his work uniform, blue jacket and hat with the visor with the writing posts, the rounded face, framed by a thick beard.

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits, Allestimento della Mostra Al Museum of Fine Arts di Boston, Ann and Graham Gund Gallery | Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

By welcoming 23 works by Van Gogh, including 14 of the 26 portraits of the roulin, as well as Dutch works of art and Japanese xylographic prints from which the artist has drawn inspiration, the exhibition places visitors in dialogue with iconic masterpieces of the MFA collection, close up to twenty loans from prestigious international collections.

Through the ten letters that Joseph Roulin wrote to Van Gogh, visitors appreciate the intimacy and tenderness of a friendship, who draw new ideas about the world of Vincent and about the desire for an important connection while confronting a new city, at a turning point in his life and in his work.

“The exhibition – explains Katie Hanson, curator of the path together with William and Ann Elfers and Nienke Bakker – not only presents the images of Van Gogh’s roulin family, but also works that reflect his thoughts about those portraits. The human history behind them”.
Van Gogh’s friendship with the roulin, admiration for his predecessor colleagues, the attempt to create a community of artists and his emotional ties with his family and friends who supported him are some of the themes that guide thematic sections.

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits, Allestimento della Mostra Al Museum of Fine Arts di Boston, Ann and Graham Gund Gallery | Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

It starts from “Place of town: the yellow house in Arles”A small compelling trip to Arles, where the artist lived from February 1888 to April 1889, in the house that was rented in May 1888. If you have to go to the city of Provencal, don’t look for it, today the yellow house no longer exists.
A self -portrait of 1887, completed in Paris, while Van Gogh intended to move to the south, all the ambition of a painter who dreams of Arles is released a new life. Although it thought it would be easier to find models and make social contacts here more than in Paris, Vincent spent all days without exchanging a word with someone. Until the summer of 1888, when he started with Joseph Roulin a profound friendship together with the chance for Van Gogh to paint people. “The Postman and Portrait Practice” Het omvat de eerste weergave van de MFA Joseph Roulin Postman (1888), evenals twee tekeningen van Roulin, maar ook portretten van Nederlandse kunstenaars uit de zeventiende eeuw waaruit de schilder inspiratie trok, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals, zoals zoals de painter, inspiration Cheerful Di Frans Hals E Family portrait in an interior By Adriaen van Ostade, as well as lithographs of the French Honoré Daumier.

And here they are in the third part, “The Roulin Family”All members of the family depicted on four canvases while they enter the visitor. Reizend in de stadia van deze suggestieve vriendschap komen we de artistieke invloeden van Van Gogh tegen, van Japanse graveurs zoals Toyohara Kunichi en Utagawa Kunisada, tot Nederlandse artiesten zoals Hals en Rembrandt, tot het einde van 18888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888. Dramatic episode of The Cut of the Ear, one of the best known in art history, at the end of a discussion with Gauguin in December 1888, as well as during the Master Hospital in the Saint-Rémy Psychiatric Hospital.
The part entitled “Letters from the postman “ It presents around ten correspondences by giving an intimate look at the relationship between the artist and his friend. As the stage “Observation and inspiration” embraces the portraits dedicated to Augustine Roulin, whose characteristics are represented by Vincent, also in other paintings, including The Balzaal in Arles (1888) E The resurrection of Lazzaro (van Rembrandt) (1890), the last section, “Enduring legacy: beyond arles”, He closes the circle, with the image of the artist and a precious place.

Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits, Allestimento della Mostra Al Museum of Fine Arts di Boston, Ann and Graham Gund Gallery | Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Visitors find their way between Self -portrait (1889) E The bedroom (1889), both painted in the fall of 1889 in the Saint-Rémy Hospital, while Van Gogh remembers his menstrual period in Arles a year earlier when he focuses on the portraits of the Roulin family.

Some photos of the roulin complete the route, which are taken later in their lives, so that visitors can see people behind the portraits. In preparation for the exhibition, the MFA restaurators was granted a large period of time for the Joseph Roulin Postman one The gullet From the MFA collection. The portrait of Augustine Roulin gave scientists particularly interesting ideas about the ways that the realization of the painting led and how it changed over time.
Visitors can know more about these discoveries in the MFA Conservation Center on the third floor of the museum and via a video on MFA.org.