The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has opened "Van Gogh and the Roulins: Together Again at Last," the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the artist's portraits of postman Joseph Roulin and his family. The show, which runs until January 11, 2026, features Van Gogh's first portrait of Roulin on loan from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, alongside the actual wicker armchair on which Roulin posed in 1888, displayed together for the first time since the chair was acquired by the museum in 1969. The exhibition previously drew 280,000 visitors at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The exhibition matters because it reunites a landmark Van Gogh portrait with its original prop—the very chair seen in the painting—offering an unprecedented material connection to the artist's working process in Arles. It also highlights Van Gogh's admiration for Frans Hals, whose "The Merry Drinker" directly inspired the composition, and sheds light on the artist's friendship with Roulin, a key figure in Van Gogh's social circle during a prolific period. The show's success in Boston and expected popularity in Amsterdam underscore enduring public fascination with Van Gogh's personal narratives and the material history behind his masterpieces.