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Vincent van Gogh’s name is synonymous with the tortured artist trope, and it’s hard for museums displaying the famed artist’s work to shake this image. Yet, the Museum of Fine Art, Boston uses its new exhibition, “Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits,” to prompt visitors to reconsider this legendary artist in a new light.

The new exhibition, set to run from March to September, showcases a variety of pieces that van Gogh made while living in Arles, in the south of France, with loans from institutions across the U.S. and Europe. In doing so, the exhibition aims to emphasize the twin themes of friendship and respect and demonstrate how these ideas emerge in van Gogh’s portraits. With careful consideration of the many influences that supported van Gogh and a dazzling array of rare works, the MFA masterfully makes its audience rethink the iconic artist as a man focused on art’s ability to foster community — and to think about how art unites us today.

When visitors first enter the exhibition, they are transported to a very specific time and place — Arles from about 1887 to 1889. This immersion is done both through the art — the first painting that greets attendees is “The Yellow House (The Street),” which depicts van Gogh’s home in Arles — and through exhibition design. Besides the introductory paintings, the space also opens with a 1-to-1 scale recreation of van Gogh’s studio in Arles which visitors can physically enter in order to put themselves in the artist’s shoes.

This attention to the space that van Gogh inhabited continues throughout the exhibition: Photos of Arles accompany paintings made in the town, and pictures like “The Dance Hall in Arles” demonstrate van Gogh’s passion for studying his neighbors. These details help visitors immerse themselves in van Gogh’s world, making him feel human instead of a long-dead legend.

As the title of the show suggests, the audience is specifically given insight into van Gogh’s relationship with the Roulins, a local family including the postman of Arles and his wife and children. In focusing on van Gogh’s portraits of the Roulin family, the exhibition intends to show how the artist was trying to build a community in Arles and connect with others, an idea that is supported by a delightful set of loaned art and many supplementary documents. In total, van Gogh created 26 portraits of the Roulin family throughout his life, and most of the significant pictures are in the exhibition, with key loans from the Van Gogh Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Getty.

While the art itself speaks to a newfound relationship between van Gogh and this family, the exhibition also uses letters to emphasize this link. In one emotional and creative room called “Letters from the Postman,” a sea of pedestals contain letters written by Joseph Roulin to van Gogh and his family after the artist’s infamous ear-cutting incident and subsequent hospitalization. As visitors move through the letters, voices read the letters aloud, so the entire room is full of soft, concerned whispers, clearly showing the concern that others had for the artist’s health and wellness. The exhibition doesn’t just show how van Gogh used his art to reach out to his community, it also shows how others showed their care for him.

Beyond displaying how van Gogh interacted with his newfound community in Arles, the exhibit supplements van Gogh’s legacy with works by influential artists with whom van Gogh lived. Although the public may consider van Gogh as largely inspired by the French environment in which he worked, the artist was also very much influenced by the tradition of Dutch portraiture and Japanese prints.

Besides van Gogh’s portraits, the MFA provides works by Frans Hals and Rembrandt, including works that van Gogh directly mentioned in his letters. As a result, the MFA successfully communicates how the tones of his pictures echo the sensibilities of Dutch portraiture. The show also gives examples of his contemporary influences, including works by Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, the latter of whom he lived and worked with in Arles for a period. Examples of Japanese woodblock prints, of which van Gogh was an admirer, are also displayed. These pairings show how van Gogh was in an artistic dialogue beyond just his surroundings as well as an active member of the Arles community.

While visitors may enter the exhibition knowing only of van Gogh’s more solitary endeavors, the MFA shines a new light on the artist that may change this perspective. Through creative exhibition design, an impressive set of loaned pieces, and a keen understanding of time and place, the exhibition allows visitors to step into 19th-century Arles and experience van Gogh’s sense of social and artistic community.

Besides educating visitors on a period in the famous artist’s life, the exhibition also reminds us that van Gogh was a human who valued friendship, respect, and artistic tradition. Beyond that, the exhibition also suggests that visitors consider how art encourages community in their own lives. The MFA may just make the world reconsider one of art history’s greatest figures and make us fall even more in love with van Gogh — a feat that must be admired.

“Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits” will be on view through Sept. 7 in the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Gallery. Afterward, it will travel to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

—Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com.