Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Encyclopedia
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Dutch
artist Vincent van Gogh
. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet
, who took care of him during the final months of his life. It was the only portrait painted by van Gogh during his stay at the doctor's home in Auvers-sur-Oise
(27.2 km outside Paris
), a 70 day period from May to July 1890.
In 1990, it fetched a then-record price of $82.5 million ($75 million, plus a 10 percent buyer's commission) when sold at auction in New York.
There are two authenticated versions of the portrait, both painted in June 1890 at Auvers. Both show Doctor Gachet sitting at a table and leaning his head onto his right arm, but they are easily differentiated in color and style.
was searching for a home for the artist upon his release from the hospital at Saint-Rémy
. Upon the recommendation of Camille Pissarro
, former patient of the doctor who told Theo of Gachet's interests in working with artists, Theo sent Vincent to Gachet's second home in Auvers.
Vincent Van Gogh's impression of Gachet at times was unfavorable, writing to Theo:
"I think that we must not count on Dr. Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that. Now when one blind man leads another blind man, don't they both fall into the ditch?"
However, a letter dated two days later to their sister Wilhelmina
, he relayed, "I have found a true friend in Dr. Gachet, something like another brother, so much do we resemble each other physically and also mentally." It is perhaps with this affection van Gogh decided to paint his doctor's portrait.
Van Gogh's thoughts returned several times to the painting by Eugène Delacroix
of Torquato Tasso
in the madhouse. After a visit with Paul Gauguin
to Montpellier
to see Alfred Bruyas
's collection in the Musée Fabre
, Van Gogh wrote to Theo, asking if he could find a copy of the lithograph after the painting. Three and a half months earlier, he had been thinking of the painting as an example of the sort of portraits he wanted to paint: "But it would be more in harmony with what Eugène Delacroix attempted and brought off in his Tasso in Prison, and many other pictures, representing a real man. Ah! portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come."
Van Gogh wrote to his brother in 1890 about the painting:
is extracted for the treatment of certain heart complaints, perhaps an attribute of Gachet as a doctor.
The doctor's "sensitive face", which Van Gogh famously wrote to Paul Gauguin
carried "the heartbroken expression of our time", has been described as the portrait's focus. One writer described the ultramarine blue coat of Gachet, set against a background of hills painted a lighter blue, as highlighting the "tired, pale features and transparent blue eyes that reflect the compassion and melancholy of the man." Van Gogh himself claimed this expression of melancholy "would seem to look like a grimace to many who saw the canvas".
With the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Van Gogh sought to create a "modern portrait", which he wrote to his sister "impassions me most - much, much more than all the rest of my métier". Elaborating on this quote, Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker
noted "..much later generations experience it not only as psychologically striking, but also as a very unconventional and 'modern
' portrait". He also wrote, "My self-portrait is done in nearly the same way but the blue is the fine blue of the Midi, and the clothes are a light lilac", which would refer to one of his final self-portraits
painted in September the year previous.
Van Gogh also wrote to Wilhelmina regarding the Portraits of Madame Ginoux
he painted first in Arles
in 1888 and again in February 1890 while at the hospital in Saint-Rémy. The second set were styled after the portrait of the same figure by Gauguin, and Van Gogh described Gachet's enthusiasm upon viewing the version painted earlier that year, which the artist had carried with him to the home in Auvers. Van Gogh subsequently carried compositional elements from this portrait to that of Dr. Gachet, including the table-top with two books and pose of the figure with head leaning into one hand.
s, the painting was subsequently bought by Paul Cassirer
(1904), Kessler (1904), and Druet (1910). In 1911, the painting was acquired by the Städel
(Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt
, Germany
and hung there until 1933, when the painting was put in a hidden room. The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
confiscated the work in 1937 as part of its campaign to rid Germany of so-called degenerate art
, leading to Hermann Göring
hurriedly selling it to a dealer in Amsterdam
. The dealer in turn sold it to collector Siegfried Kramarsky, who brought it with him when he fled to New York
, where the work was often lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
.
Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction at Christie's
New York
on May 15, 1990, where it became famous for Ryoei Saito
, honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., paying US$82.5 million for it, making it then the world's most expensive painting. The 75-year old Japanese businessman briefly caused a scandal when he said he would have the Van Gogh painting cremated with him after his death, though his aides later claimed Saito threatening to torch the masterpiece was just an expression of intense affection for it.
Though he later said he would consider giving the painting to the Japanese government or a museum, no information has been made public about the exact location and ownership of the portrait since his death in 1996. Reports in 2007 have claimed the painting was sold a decade earlier to the Austrian-born investment fund manager Wolfgang Flöttl. Flöttl, in turn, had reportedly been forced by financial reversals to sell the painting to parties as yet unknown.
The authenticity of the second version has often come under scrutiny due to a number of factors.
In a letter dated 3 June 1890 to Theo, Vincent mentions his work on the portrait, which includes "...a yellow book and a foxglove plant with purple flowers." The subsequent letter sent to Wilhelmina also mentions "yellow novels and a foxglove flower". As the yellow novels are absent from the second version of the painting, the letters clearly reference only the original version.
Dr. Gachet, as well as his son, also named Paul, were amateur artists themselves. Along with original works, they often made copies of the Post-Impressionist paintings in the elder Gachet's collection, which included not only works by Van Gogh, but Cézanne, Monet, Renoir
and others. These copies were self-declared, and signed under the pseudonyms Paul and Louis Van Ryssel, yet the practice has thrown the entire Gachet collection into question, including the doctor's portrait.
Additionally, some critics have questioned the sheer number of works to emerge from Van Gogh's stay in Auvers, roughly eighty in seventy days, and possibility of the artist to have painted them all himself.
Partly in response to these accusations, the Musée d'Orsay
, which holds the second version of the Gachet portrait as well as the other works originally owned by the doctor, held an exhibit in 1999 of his former collection. In addition to the paintings by Van Gogh and the other Post-Impressionist masters, the exhibition was accompanied by works of the elder and younger Gachet. Prior to the exhibition, the museum commissioned infrared
, ultraviolet
and chemical analysis of eight works each by Van Gogh, Cézanne, and the Gachets for comparison. The studies showed pigments on the Van Gogh paintings faded differently than the Gachet copies. Also discovered were the Gachet paintings to be drawn with outlines and filled with paint, whereas the Van Gogh and Cézanne works were painted directly to canvas. Van Gogh also used the same rough canvas for all his paintings at Auvers, with the exception of The Church at Auvers
, whose authenticity has never been questioned.
In addition to scientific evidence, defenders claim while the second version of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet is often considered to be of lesser-quality than many of Van Gogh's works in Arles, it is superior in technique to anything painted by either the elder or younger Gachet.
Dutch scholar J.B. de la Faille
, who compiled the first exhaustive catalog of Van Gogh works in 1928, noted in his manuscript, "We consider this painting a very weak replica of the preceding one, missing the piercing look (of the original)". Editors of the posthumous 1970 edition of Faille's book disagreed with his assessment, stating they considered both works to be of high quality.
themes, but that never happened. This was the one and only etching, also known as "L'homme à la pipe" (Man with a pipe), that Van Gogh made in his career. Van Gogh's brother, who received an impression of the etching called it "a true painter's etching. No refinement in the execution, but a drawing on metal." It is a different pose that Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, owned by Musée d'Orsay
. The National Gallery of Canada finds that "The undulating flow of the line is typical of the expressive quality of van Gogh's late style." The impression owned by the National Gallery is from one of the 60 printings following Van Gogh's death by Dr. Gachet's son, Paul Gachet Jr. Gachet's collector's stamp appears on the bottom edge of the print.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
artist Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet
Paul Gachet
Paul-Ferdinand Gachet was a French physician most famous for treating the painter Vincent van Gogh during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. Gachet was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement...
, who took care of him during the final months of his life. It was the only portrait painted by van Gogh during his stay at the doctor's home in Auvers-sur-Oise
Auvers-sur-Oise
Auvers-sur-Oise is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is associated with several famous artists, the most prominent being Vincent van Gogh.-History:...
(27.2 km outside Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
), a 70 day period from May to July 1890.
In 1990, it fetched a then-record price of $82.5 million ($75 million, plus a 10 percent buyer's commission) when sold at auction in New York.
There are two authenticated versions of the portrait, both painted in June 1890 at Auvers. Both show Doctor Gachet sitting at a table and leaning his head onto his right arm, but they are easily differentiated in color and style.
Background
In 1890, Van Gogh's brother TheoTheo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
was searching for a home for the artist upon his release from the hospital at Saint-Rémy
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Geography:...
. Upon the recommendation of Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, former patient of the doctor who told Theo of Gachet's interests in working with artists, Theo sent Vincent to Gachet's second home in Auvers.
Vincent Van Gogh's impression of Gachet at times was unfavorable, writing to Theo:
"I think that we must not count on Dr. Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that. Now when one blind man leads another blind man, don't they both fall into the ditch?"
However, a letter dated two days later to their sister Wilhelmina
Wil van Gogh
Willemina Jacoba van Gogh , called Wil, was the youngest sister of the artist Vincent van Gogh and the art dealer Theo van Gogh. She was amongst the earliest feminists....
, he relayed, "I have found a true friend in Dr. Gachet, something like another brother, so much do we resemble each other physically and also mentally." It is perhaps with this affection van Gogh decided to paint his doctor's portrait.
Van Gogh's thoughts returned several times to the painting by Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
of Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
in the madhouse. After a visit with Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
to Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
to see Alfred Bruyas
Alfred Bruyas
Alfred Bruyas was an art collector and a personal friend of many important artists of his time, among them Gustave Courbet. He donated his collection to the Musée Fabre, in Montpellier....
's collection in the Musée Fabre
Musée Fabre
The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault département.The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 million euro renovation, which was completed in January 2007...
, Van Gogh wrote to Theo, asking if he could find a copy of the lithograph after the painting. Three and a half months earlier, he had been thinking of the painting as an example of the sort of portraits he wanted to paint: "But it would be more in harmony with what Eugène Delacroix attempted and brought off in his Tasso in Prison, and many other pictures, representing a real man. Ah! portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come."
Van Gogh wrote to his brother in 1890 about the painting:
Composition
Van Gogh painted Gachet resting his right elbow on a red table, head in hand. Two yellow books as well as the purple medicinal herb foxglove are displayed on the table. The foxglove in the painting is a plant from which digitalisDigitalis
Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and biennials that are commonly called foxgloves. This genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent reviews of phylogenetic research have placed it in the much enlarged family...
is extracted for the treatment of certain heart complaints, perhaps an attribute of Gachet as a doctor.
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
carried "the heartbroken expression of our time", has been described as the portrait's focus. One writer described the ultramarine blue coat of Gachet, set against a background of hills painted a lighter blue, as highlighting the "tired, pale features and transparent blue eyes that reflect the compassion and melancholy of the man." Van Gogh himself claimed this expression of melancholy "would seem to look like a grimace to many who saw the canvas".
With the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Van Gogh sought to create a "modern portrait", which he wrote to his sister "impassions me most - much, much more than all the rest of my métier". Elaborating on this quote, Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker
Jan Hulsker
Jan Hulsker studied Dutch literature in Leiden and was promoted with a thesis on the author Aart van der Leeuw....
noted "..much later generations experience it not only as psychologically striking, but also as a very unconventional and 'modern
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
' portrait". He also wrote, "My self-portrait is done in nearly the same way but the blue is the fine blue of the Midi, and the clothes are a light lilac", which would refer to one of his final self-portraits
Self-Portraits by Vincent van Gogh
The dozens of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh were an important part of his oeuvre as a painter. Vincent van Gogh created many self-portraits during his lifetime. Most probably, Van Gogh's self portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e...
painted in September the year previous.
Van Gogh also wrote to Wilhelmina regarding the Portraits of Madame Ginoux
L'Arlésienne (painting)
L'Arlésienne, L'Arlésienne , or Portrait of Madame Ginoux is the title given to a group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, November 1888 , and in Auvers, February 1890...
he painted first in Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
in 1888 and again in February 1890 while at the hospital in Saint-Rémy. The second set were styled after the portrait of the same figure by Gauguin, and Van Gogh described Gachet's enthusiasm upon viewing the version painted earlier that year, which the artist had carried with him to the home in Auvers. Van Gogh subsequently carried compositional elements from this portrait to that of Dr. Gachet, including the table-top with two books and pose of the figure with head leaning into one hand.
Original version
First sold in 1897 by van Gogh's sister-in-law for 300 francFranc
The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...
s, the painting was subsequently bought by Paul Cassirer
Paul Cassirer
Paul Cassirer was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, in particular that of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.- Starting out :Paul Cassirer started out as...
(1904), Kessler (1904), and Druet (1910). In 1911, the painting was acquired by the Städel
Städel
The Städel, officially the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, is an art museum in Frankfurt am Main, with one of the most important collections in Germany....
(Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and hung there until 1933, when the painting was put in a hidden room. The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
confiscated the work in 1937 as part of its campaign to rid Germany of so-called degenerate art
Degenerate art
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
, leading to Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
hurriedly selling it to a dealer in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. The dealer in turn sold it to collector Siegfried Kramarsky, who brought it with him when he fled to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where the work was often lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
.
Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on May 15, 1990, where it became famous for Ryoei Saito
Ryoei Saito
Ryoei Saito was the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing, Japan.He was noted for his purchase of expensive art like Portrait of Dr. Gachet amongst others....
, honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., paying US$82.5 million for it, making it then the world's most expensive painting. The 75-year old Japanese businessman briefly caused a scandal when he said he would have the Van Gogh painting cremated with him after his death, though his aides later claimed Saito threatening to torch the masterpiece was just an expression of intense affection for it.
Though he later said he would consider giving the painting to the Japanese government or a museum, no information has been made public about the exact location and ownership of the portrait since his death in 1996. Reports in 2007 have claimed the painting was sold a decade earlier to the Austrian-born investment fund manager Wolfgang Flöttl. Flöttl, in turn, had reportedly been forced by financial reversals to sell the painting to parties as yet unknown.
Second version
There is a second version of the portrait which was owned by Gachet himself. In the early 1950s, along with the remainder of his personal collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, it was bequeathed to the Republic of France by his heirs.The authenticity of the second version has often come under scrutiny due to a number of factors.
In a letter dated 3 June 1890 to Theo, Vincent mentions his work on the portrait, which includes "...a yellow book and a foxglove plant with purple flowers." The subsequent letter sent to Wilhelmina also mentions "yellow novels and a foxglove flower". As the yellow novels are absent from the second version of the painting, the letters clearly reference only the original version.
Dr. Gachet, as well as his son, also named Paul, were amateur artists themselves. Along with original works, they often made copies of the Post-Impressionist paintings in the elder Gachet's collection, which included not only works by Van Gogh, but Cézanne, Monet, Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
and others. These copies were self-declared, and signed under the pseudonyms Paul and Louis Van Ryssel, yet the practice has thrown the entire Gachet collection into question, including the doctor's portrait.
Additionally, some critics have questioned the sheer number of works to emerge from Van Gogh's stay in Auvers, roughly eighty in seventy days, and possibility of the artist to have painted them all himself.
Partly in response to these accusations, the Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
, which holds the second version of the Gachet portrait as well as the other works originally owned by the doctor, held an exhibit in 1999 of his former collection. In addition to the paintings by Van Gogh and the other Post-Impressionist masters, the exhibition was accompanied by works of the elder and younger Gachet. Prior to the exhibition, the museum commissioned infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
, ultraviolet
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
and chemical analysis of eight works each by Van Gogh, Cézanne, and the Gachets for comparison. The studies showed pigments on the Van Gogh paintings faded differently than the Gachet copies. Also discovered were the Gachet paintings to be drawn with outlines and filled with paint, whereas the Van Gogh and Cézanne works were painted directly to canvas. Van Gogh also used the same rough canvas for all his paintings at Auvers, with the exception of The Church at Auvers
The Church at Auvers
The Church at Auvers was painted by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh in 1890.-History:...
, whose authenticity has never been questioned.
In addition to scientific evidence, defenders claim while the second version of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet is often considered to be of lesser-quality than many of Van Gogh's works in Arles, it is superior in technique to anything painted by either the elder or younger Gachet.
Dutch scholar J.B. de la Faille
Jacob Baart de la Faille
Jacob Baart-de la Faille compiled the first catalogue raisonné of the work of Vincent van Gogh, published in 1928...
, who compiled the first exhaustive catalog of Van Gogh works in 1928, noted in his manuscript, "We consider this painting a very weak replica of the preceding one, missing the piercing look (of the original)". Editors of the posthumous 1970 edition of Faille's book disagreed with his assessment, stating they considered both works to be of high quality.
Lithograph
Van Gogh, introduced to etching by Gachet, made the etching Portrait of Doctor Gachet in 1890. Gachet and Van Gogh discussed creating a series of southern FranceSouthern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
themes, but that never happened. This was the one and only etching, also known as "L'homme à la pipe" (Man with a pipe), that Van Gogh made in his career. Van Gogh's brother, who received an impression of the etching called it "a true painter's etching. No refinement in the execution, but a drawing on metal." It is a different pose that Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, owned by Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
. The National Gallery of Canada finds that "The undulating flow of the line is typical of the expressive quality of van Gogh's late style." The impression owned by the National Gallery is from one of the 60 printings following Van Gogh's death by Dr. Gachet's son, Paul Gachet Jr. Gachet's collector's stamp appears on the bottom edge of the print.
Further reading
- Saltzman, Cynthia: Portrait of Dr. Gachet. The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece: Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss. ISBN 0-670-86223-1
External links
- Musée d'Orsay: Vincent van Gogh Dr Paul Gachet