(Credit: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
At the toughest, most turbulent time of his life, the Post-Impressionist painter was supported by an unlikely soulmate, Joseph Roulin, a postman in Arles. A new exhibition explores this close friendship, and how it benefited art history. On 23 December, 1888, the day that Vincent van Gogh mutilated his ear and presented the severed portion to a sex worker, he was tended to by an unlikely soulmate: the postman Joseph Roulin.
Roulin's wife is portrayed in Lullaby: Madame Augustine Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse) 1889 (Credit: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Portrait of Joseph Roulin, 1889 – Van Gogh's paintings of the Roulin family were full of warmth and optimism (Credit: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
A pen, ink and chalk portrait of Roulin, 1888, is among the exhibits in the show Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits (Credit: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Van Gogh's Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888 – Roulin was a close friend and loyal ally of the artist (Credit: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
The Baby Marcelle Roulin and Armand Roulin, both 1888 – Van Gogh created 26 portraits of the family (Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam/Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Had Van Gogh not felt Roulin's unwavering support, he may not have survived the series of devastating breakdowns that began in December 1888 when he took a razor to his ear. With the care of those close to him, he lived a further 19 months, producing a staggering 70 paintings in his last 70 days, and leaving one of art history's most treasured legacies.
Like the intimate portraits he created in Arles, the exhibition courses with optimism. "I hope being with these works of art and exploring his creative process – and his ways of creating connection – will be a heartwarming story," Hanson says. Far from "shying away from the sadness" of this period of Van Gogh's life, she says, the exhibition bears witness to the power of supportive relationships and "the reality that sadness and hope can coexist".
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