Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Portrait of Dr. Gachet | |
---|---|
Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
Year | 1890 |
Catalogue | |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 67 cm × 56 cm (23.4 in × 22.0 in) |
Location | Private collection |
Portrait of Dr. Gachet | |
---|---|
Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
Year | 1890 |
Catalogue | |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 67 cm × 56 cm (23.4 in × 22.0 in) |
Location | Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet, a homeopathic doctor and artist[1] with whom van Gogh resided following a spell in an asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Gachet took care of Van Gogh during the final months of his life. There are two authenticated versions of the portrait, both painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise. Both show Gachet sitting at a table and leaning his head on his right arm, but they are easily differentiated in color and style. There is also an etching.
The first version was acquired by the Städel in Frankfurt in 1911 and subsequently confiscated and sold by Hermann Göring. In May 1990, it was sold at auction for $82.5 million ($192.4 million today) to Ryoei Saito, making it the world's most expensive painting at that time. It then disappeared from public view and the Städel was unable to locate it in 2019. The second version was owned by Gachet and was bequeathed to France by his heirs. Despite arguments over its authenticity, it now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris.
Background
In late 1888, Van Gogh began to experience a
Vincent van Gogh's first impression of Gachet was unfavorable. Writing to Theo he remarked: "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?"[4] However, in 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."[5]
Van Gogh had a very prolific spell during his stay with Gachet, producing more than seventy paintings,[6] including the portraits of Gachet.[7]
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.[8] 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."[9]
Van Gogh wrote to his sister in 1890 about the painting:
I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it... Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done... There are modern heads that may be looked at for a long time, and that may perhaps be looked back on with longing a hundred years later.[10]
The portraits of Dr. Gachet were completed just six weeks before Van Gogh shot himself and died from his wounds.[11]
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
The doctor's "sensitive face", which Van Gogh wrote to Paul Gauguin carried "the heartbroken expression of our time", is described by Robert Wallace as the portrait's focus.[12] Wallace 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."[12] Van Gogh himself said this expression of melancholy "would seem to look like a grimace to many who saw the canvas".[10]
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."
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.[13] 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 on one hand.[13]
Exhibition
Original version
First sold in 1897 by Van Gogh's sister-in-law
Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction at
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
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."
Partly in response to these accusations, the
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.[26]
Etching
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 France 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 ever made. Van Gogh's brother, Theo, 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 than that in 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.[27]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Vincent van Gogh". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9781588393494. Archivedfrom the original on 2018-09-14. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
- S2CID 20217116.
- ^ Letter 648 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d Letter W22 Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Henley, Jon (27 January 1999). "The remarkable Dr Gachet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^ "Le docteur Paul Gachet". Musée d'Orsay. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^ Letter 564 Archived 2006-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Letter 531 Archived 2016-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Letter W23 Archived 2011-02-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Washington Post. Archivedfrom the original on 29 October 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^ a b Wallace, Robert (1969). The World of Van Gogh. New York: Time-Life Books. pp. 174–75.
- ^ ISBN 0-940537-05-2.
- ISBN 978-1-906509-56-9. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
- ^ a b Kleiner, Carolyn (July 24, 2000). "Van Gogh's vanishing act". Mysteries of History. U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on December 8, 2013. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
- ^ Christie's New York May 15, 1990, lot 21 of Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture (Part 1). Sale GACHET-7068.
- ^ Usbourne, David (27 July 1999). "Lost Van Gogh feared cremated with owner". The Independent. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
- ^ "History of the Dr Gachet painting". Annaboch.com. 1990-05-15. Archived from the original on 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
- ^ a b "Dr. Gachet" Sighting: It WAS Flöttl! Archived 2018-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, ArtsJournal
- ^ Bailey, Martin (15 November 2019). "Where is the portrait of Dr Gachet? The mysterious disappearance of Van Gogh's most expensive painting". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
- ^ a b c d Bailey, Martin (March 1999). "Cézanne joins Van Gogh for close scrutiny". The Art Newspaper: 10–12. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
- ^ Kimmelman, Michael (May 29, 1999). "Comparing the Fake and the Great". Art Review. The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
- ^ Letter 638 Archived 2011-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Lichfield, John (5 February 1999). "Arts: No cachet in a Gachet". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
- ^ a b c Henley, Jon (28 January 1999). "The remarkable Dr Gachet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 May 2014. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
- ^ de la Faille, J.B.; Reynal & Company (1970). The Works of Vincent van Gogh. New York: William Morrow & Company. p. 292.
- ^ "Portrait of Doctor Gachet". Collections. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
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 Archived 2018-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Van Gogh, Paintings and Drawings: A Special Loan Exhibition, a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on this painting (see index)
- Moffett, Charles S. Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic, 1973 exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Podcast Finding Van Gogh, released 12 September 2019 by the Staedel Museum.
- Media related to Portraits of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh at Wikimedia Commons