Discover the remarkable friendship between Vincent van Gogh and postman Joseph Roulin and his family. Thanks to the close connection with the Roulins, Van Gogh was able to pursue his ambitions as a portrait painter. He made many portraits of the family. A large number of these works are on view together for the first time at the Van Gogh Museum this autumn.
In the summer of 1888, Vincent van Gogh became friends with Joseph Roulin. Joseph 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.
Vincent was always looking for models, and painted the friendly postman with his striking beard and blue uniform many times. He was delighted to also have the chance to paint Roulin’s wife Augustine and their children.
Many of the impressive portraits that Van Gogh made of the Roulin family will be on view together for the first time from 3 October 2025 onwards, in the exhibition Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last. This is the first ever exhibition to focus exclusively on this important group of paintings from the turbulent period that Van Gogh spent in the southern French town of Arles.
Tickets for this exhibition go on sale on 7 July 2025. A ticket also grants access to the permanent collection. If you would like to stay up to date and receive an email when tickets go on sale, register for the ticket alert.
Vincent van Gogh, Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 81.3 × 65.4 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Robert Treat Paine. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Vincent van Gogh, Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889, oil on canvas, 92.7 × 72.7 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of John T. Spaulding. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Vincent van Gogh, Armand Roulin, 1888, oil on canvas, 65 × 54.1 cm, Museum Folkwang, Essen. Photograph: Museum Folkwang Essen—ARTOTHEK
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Camille Roulin, 1888
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Marcelle Roulin, 1888
Van Gogh had big ambitions for his portraiture. He admired the portraits of the 17th-century painters Frans Hals and Rembrandt, as he thought that these artists were unrivalled in their portrayals of people and the time in which they lived.
Alongside the character of his subjects, Van Gogh also wanted to evoke his own modern time in the paintings. He hoped that this would help him prove himself as an avant-garde artist.
The portraits of ‘an entire family’ held special significance for Van Gogh. Vincent never married, and did not have any children. The Roulins were more than just models to him; with them he found the warmth of a family that he was never able to start.
Van Gogh made the portraits in the intense period in which he was at the peak of his artistic abilities, worked with Paul Gauguin in the Yellow House, and dreamed of colourful portraits with profound meaning. But it was also a period of increasing loneliness and mental health problems for the artist.
When Van Gogh suffered a mental crisis and was admitted to hospital after cutting off his ear in a state of total confusion, Roulin gave Vincent his unwavering support. The exhibition therefore tells a story of family, friendship and connection.
‘While Roulin isn’t exactly old enough to be like a father to me, all the same he has silent solemnities and tendernesses for me like an old soldier would have for a young one.’
Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, Arles, c. 4 April 1889
Van Gogh painted members of the Roulin family many times. He sent several of these paintings to his brother Theo, but also gifted portraits to the Roulins. The portraits were later sold, and became scattered amongst museums and private collections around the world.
A large number of the portraits are being reunited for the first time this autumn in Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last.
This exhibition is a collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where the exhibition Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits will be on view from 30 March to 7 September 2025.
