When Van Gogh first arrived in the French city in 1888, he had difficulty finding common ground with the local community, but he found a kindred spirit in Joseph Roulin. The postman became a close companion and regular model for the artist, as did his wife Augustine and their three children, the seventeen-year-old Armand, the eleven-year-old Camille and baby Marcelle. When Van Gogh suffered a severe mental crisis at the end of 1888, Joseph offered Vincent his unwavering support, visiting the hospital daily and frequently updating his brother Theo in a series of letters.
The portraits that Van Gogh made of the Roulin family during this time reflect a deep connection with his friend, and exemplify the artist’s ambition to capture his sitters’ emotions rather than pure physical likeness – an idea inspired by predecessors such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Examples of these artists’ work will be displayed near Van Gogh’s portraits of the postman wearing his navy uniform with golden buttons (1888 and 1889), as well as three versions of the famous La Berceuse (1889), in which Augustine, portrayed against an ornately patterned floral wallpaper, holds a rope to rock an unseen cradle.
Works by Paul Gauguin will also feature in the exhibition. Sharing Van Gogh's house and studio in Arles, famously known as the Yellow House, Gauguin portrayed several members of the Roulin family, sketching baby Marcelle, drafting studies of Camille and painting Augustine. The chair on which Joseph sat when Van Gogh painted his portrait will be on display for the first time. It was among the items that Van Gogh stored with the Ginoux family at the Café de la Gare when he left Arles in 1889, eventually coming under the ownership of Theo’s son, also named Vincent, and later acquired by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. Portraits of Joseph, Augustine and the children taken between 1902 and 1955 will be shown at the end of the exhibition.
The museum’s ground floor will lead visitors into a life-sized replica of the famous Yellow House. Reproductions of archival photographs will reimagine what the city looked like at the time, while materials will be provided for families to create their own portraits inside the artist’s recreated studio. A series of educational programmes and workshops will further animate the Yellow House throughout the exhibition’s run.
