The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is hosting an extraordinary exhibition that brings together portraits of an entire family scattered across museums worldwide. The exhibition, titled "Van Gogh and the Roulins: Together Again at Last," honors postal worker Joseph Roulin, his wife Augustine, and their children who served as models for Vincent van Gogh during a lonely period in his life when he struggled to make friends in the French town of Arles.

The centerpiece of this remarkable reunion includes 14 portraits from van Gogh's total of 26 paintings of the Roulin family, created during an intense burst of creativity from July 1888 to April 1889. The exhibition features paintings of the expansively bearded postman Joseph Roulin, his wife, two sons, and baby daughter, collected from museums around the world. One of the most significant pieces comes from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, showcasing a portrait of Roulin resplendent in his blue uniform with gold buttons and trim, sitting in an armchair made of local willow from Provence.

In a surprising discovery that adds authenticity to the exhibition, the Van Gogh Museum found the actual chair featured in Roulin's portrait hidden away in their own storerooms. "As it turns out, we have this chair in our collection, but we have never shown it before," said Van Gogh Museum Director Emilie Gordenker. "It just shows you when you start to work on a topic – in this case, the Roulin family portraits – all kinds of things you might never have thought about before come up and it's really exciting to rediscover, as it were, your own collection." The historic chair, deemed too fragile to travel to Boston for the exhibition's previous run, is being displayed for the first time alongside the portrait.

The relationship between van Gogh and Joseph Roulin transcended that of artist and model, developing into a meaningful friendship during van Gogh's transformative Arles period. The Dutch master wrote to his brother Theo in April 1889, "While Roulin isn't exactly old enough to be like a father to me, all the same he has silent solemnities and tenderness for me like an old soldier would have for a young one." This period, which many consider van Gogh's peak, was crucial to his artistic development. "Many people consider his Arles period really his peak," Gordenker explained. "I'm not sure we totally agree with that, but it is definitely a moment when he turns a corner... his power as an artist really comes out."

The exhibition goes beyond just displaying the portraits, creating an immersive experience that includes works by van Gogh's contemporaries and influences. Visitors can see paintings by his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin, as well as works by Dutch Golden Age masters Rembrandt van Rijn and Frans Hals, whose techniques were major sources of inspiration for van Gogh. The museum has also constructed a life-size facade of the famous yellow house that van Gogh used as his studio in Arles, providing visitors with a tangible connection to the environment where these masterpieces were created.

Curator Nienke Bakker, who organized the show alongside Katie Hanson from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, emphasized the significance of portraiture in van Gogh's artistic journey. "He literally says painting people brings out the best in me, but also makes me feel part of humanity. So it's a very important thing," Bakker explained. The chair's journey from van Gogh's studio to the museum's storage and finally to public display tells its own story of artistic legacy and preservation. According to Bakker, the chair went into storage after van Gogh left Arles and was subsequently passed to the artist's relatives before ultimately finding its way to the museum.

The emotional impact of seeing both the portrait and the actual furniture used in its creation cannot be understated. "It's quite moving to have of course this fantastic portrait here, but also to be able to show the actual chair he was sitting in and to realize that it was quite a simple small chair," Bakker noted. This juxtaposition of art and artifact provides visitors with a unique opportunity to connect with van Gogh's creative process and the humble circumstances in which these now-priceless masterpieces were created.

The exhibition, which opened on Friday, will run through January 11, offering art enthusiasts and casual visitors alike the rare opportunity to see this scattered family reunited after more than a century. The show represents not just an artistic achievement but also a testament to the enduring power of human connection and friendship that transcended the artist's struggles with loneliness and mental health during his time in the south of France.