By Shelley A. Sackett

Mention the name Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), and most people conjure images of sunflowers, star-filled nights and a severed ear. Few think of him as a portrait artist who channeled his longing for a family of his own into 26 sketches and paintings of a local Arles family. Even fewer realize the string of Jews that helped van Gogh achieve fame, albeit posthumously.

While the stunning MFA exhibit, “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits,” shines a light on van Gogh’s relationship with the Arles postmaster and his family, uncovering the Jewish connection requires a little digging.

Joseph Isaacson, a Dutchman of Jewish origin, published an article praising the then-unknown van Gogh in 1881, nine years before the artist’s death. Eleven years later, 65 van Gogh works were shown in Paris at the Jewish-owned Bernheim-Jeune Galleries. The German Jewish art dealer, Paul Cassirer, traveled to Paris to see the exhibit after reading an article by Julius-Meier Graefe, a great German Jewish art historian who lived in Paris. Cassirer borrowed five paintings to take back to Germany, where he organized exhibitions of the artist’s work in his Berlin gallery, launching what would become worldwide appreciation. Graefe later expanded his essay into the seminal biography of van Gogh.

Although these Jews opened the world’s eyes to the brilliance of van Gogh’s talent, it was Arles postman Joseph Roulin and his family who unlocked the artist’s heart and painterly soul. The MFA exhibit, a collaboration with the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam that runs through Sept. 7, does a splendid job of revealing the uplifting effect sunny Provence and the Roulin family had on the tormented Dutchman.

Seven years in the making, the exquisite installation covers the 14 months van Gogh spent in Provence in 1888 and 1889. He had just moved to Arles from Paris in late July when he wandered into a café. There, he spotted Joseph Roulin, the postman whose rosy cheeks, magnificent red beard and enthusiastic energy he would immortalize in a series of signature portraits. He also developed a loving relationship with the entire family, including Roulin’s wife, Augustine, and their three children.

In seven sections, the show traces van Gogh’s friendship with the Roulins against a backdrop of the experiences and outside forces that influenced the artist. He arrived in Arles in his mid-30s after unsatisfying stints as a teacher, preacher and retail clerk. At a turning point in his life and career, he had all but abandoned any personal hope of becoming a husband and father, yet optimistically embraced the new professional possibilities presented by portraiture and landscape painting. Like Dutch predecessors Rembrandt, van Dyk and Hals (represented in the exhibit), he viewed portrait painting as a way to improve his craft and, hopefully, earn a living.

A self-portrait and the iconic “The Yellow House (The Street)” (1888), an affectionate rendition of the house van Gogh rented for studio and residence, greets the visitor and immediately establishes a sense of place. Maps, photographs, letters and a recreation of his studio add context and texture.

“Postman Joseph Roulin” (1888), owned by the MFA, is the first portrait van Gogh painted of the then 47-year-old postman, coincidentally on the day his wife gave birth to their third child. “I hope I’ll get to paint the baby born today,” he wrote in a letter to his sister Willemien. Although he would paint each of the five Roulins, he never painted a formal family portrait.

Between July 1888 and April 1889, van Gogh completed 26 Roulin portraits. These works express the warmth he felt for his subjects and the calming impact sun-drenched Provence, with its bright patterned fabrics and rolling fields and forests, had on his compositions and persona.

“Creating Community through Art” shifts the focus and tone to presage van Gogh’s eventual falling out with fellow artist and friend Paul Gaugin, and his subsequent institutionalization and suicide. Hoping to create a communal studio where artists could gather and work together, he invited Gaugin to join him in late 1888. The two often quarreled, and after a particularly fiery row, van Gogh cut off his own left ear, landing him in the hospital. His art dealer brother, Theo, visited from Paris for an afternoon, but it was the Roulin family who dropped in daily and updated Theo by letter.

When Joseph was transferred to Marseille, he and van Gogh continued corresponding. The MFA exhibit includes a room with 10 of Roulin’s letters (his penmanship is remarkably elegant) under glass. As the viewer approaches, a voice reads them aloud in English.

After his hospital release, van Gogh committed himself to an asylum in St.-Rémy, where he painted landscapes in thick, expressive brushstrokes. “Enduring Legacy,” the last section, ends with works painted from his bedroom, including one of only three self-portraits where he portrayed himself as an artist. Even more poignant, however, are the gelatin silver prints of the Roulin family, with descriptions of their lives and deaths. These were real people, after all, and their impact on van Gogh was profound.

“If I manage to do [paint] this entire family, even better,” he wrote to Theo in December 1888 after painting Joseph’s portrait; “I’ll have done at least one thing to my taste and personal.” Θ

For more information, visit mfa.org.