Research into Doctor Gachet

In May 1890, Vincent van Gogh left the South of France and travelled to Auvers-sur-Oise, a village not far from Paris (where Theo was living at the time). In light of his poor mental health, Vincent wanted to live closer to his brother, but the commotion of the city didn’t appeal to him. Auvers offered the perfect solution: it was peaceful, and there was a doctor who could keep an eye on things.

This doctor, Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), was a keen amateur artist and liked to keep the company of artists. His medical practice was in Paris, and he purchased a second house in Auvers in 1872. From then on, he produced his own etchings, using the pseudonym Paul van Ryssel.

The doctor had an etching press in his country house. As early as 1873, he successfully inspired a number of modern artists – including Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro and Armand Guillaumin – to experiment with printmaking. With Gachet as his guide, Van Gogh made his first and only etching in 1890: Portrait of Doctor Gachet. He printed the etching using black ink, but also experimented with various colours.

Running alongside the exhibition Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise. His Final Months in the summer of 2023, the Van Gogh Museum organised a small exhibition focusing on the etchings made by Van Gogh and Gachet in Auvers. This exhibition placed the various prints of Van Gogh’s only etching in the broader context of artists’ renewed interest in the field, the so-called etching revival.

Sara Tas’ research also explores the Van Gogh Museum’s extensive sub-collection of works by Gachet, his artist friends and students. Paul Ferdinand Gachet and his son Paul Louis Gachet were in close contact with Jo van Gogh-Bonger and her son Vincent Willem van Gogh (the ‘engineer’). Their comprehensive correspondence is also in the Van Gogh Museum collection.

This research has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Contact

Sara Tas, associate curator
s.tas@vangoghmuseum.nl