Portrait of Doctor Gachet: two versions, a model and a record value
The answer in one sentenceVan Gogh painted two oil portraits of Paul Gachet: the first, now in a private collection, sold for $82.5 million in 1990; the second belongs to the Musée d'Orsay.
A man leans his cheek on his hand, as if the weight of his thoughts is becoming physical. In front of him, a branch of foxglove, two books and an incandescent table red. Behind him, the blue undulates. This simple pose produced two almost twin paintings, but two radically different stories.
The subject is not only the doctor who monitors Vincent van Gogh in Auvers. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet is also a collector, amateur engraver and painter under the pseudonym Paul Van Ryssel. Van Gogh recognizes in him another melancholic temperament. The portrait thus becomes less an identity card than an image of modern sensitivity.
Both versions face to face
The compositions are close, but they are neither a mechanical copy nor two interchangeable objects. The colors, the density of the material and the heritage trajectory make it possible to distinguish them.
The record version
The blue-green background is nervous, the jacket appears darker and the red-orange table cuts the composition sharply. It is this painting which was seized in Germany under the Nazi regime, then passed into the Kramarsky collection and broke the world record at auction in 1990.
- Format
- approximately 67 × 56 cm
- Status
- private collection
- Last public view
- christie's Sale, New York, May 15, 1990
The publicly accessible version
The blue of the jacket is more frank, the yellows brighter and the contours sharper. Remaining in the Gachet family, it was given to the State by Paul and Marguerite Gachet in 1949. It is today kept at the Musée d'Orsay.
- Format
- 68.2 × 57 cm
- Inventory
- RF 1949 16
- Status
- french national collection
| Marker | First version | Second version |
|---|---|---|
| Current location | Private collection; public location not confirmed | Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
| Dominant | More muffled blue-greens, almost black jacket in places | Ultramarine and brighter blues |
| Table and books | Particularly dense red-orange contrast | More open yellows and clearer separation of shapes |
| Modern provenance | Städel, Nazi dispossession, Kramarsky collection, 1990 sale | Gachet family, donation to the State in 1949 |
| Can we see it? | Not in a known public collection | Yes, subject to museum hanging |
Why does this portrait seem so melancholy?
Van Gogh does not seek worldly resemblance. Each element gives a visible form to an inner tension.
The gesture brings the entire weight of the body down towards the elbow. It evokes fatigue, waiting and thinking, without transforming Gachet into a passive patient.
The eyes are open but slightly offbeat. This absence of direct contact establishes a stronger psychological distance than a frontal gaze.
The background is not a neutral wall. Its undulating features extend the curves of the cap, shoulder and sleeve. Space seems to breathe with the model.
The hot table stops the bruises from descending. This complementary contrast prevents the image from becoming gray and transforms sadness into pictorial energy.
Placed in the foreground, the medicinal plant identifies the profession of the model. It is both a botanical detail, a symbol of care and a vertical axis of the composition.
The yellow volumes bear the titles of novels by the Goncourt brothers. They connect Gachet to contemporary culture and modern concerns of Van Gogh.
Van Gogh explains to his sister that he painted Gachet with an "expression of melancholy", perhaps taken for a grimace, but necessary to convey the passion and expectation of modern faces.Paraphrase of letter 886 to Willemien van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise, around June 5, 1890.
Paul Gachet: doctor, artist and collector
Reducing Gachet to "Van Gogh’s doctor" loses half the subject. He himself belongs to the artistic world that Vincent frequents.
A doctor familiar with melancholy
- Born in 1828, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet worked as a doctor and was interested in nervous disorders and melancholy.
- Based in Auvers-sur-Oise, it is recommended to Theo by Camille Pissarro.
- He receives Vincent, observes his condition and offers him an environment where artistic work remains possible.
- Van Gogh first judges him "sicker than me", then recognizes in him a possible friend and a sensitive interlocutor.
An amateur at the heart of impressionist networks
Gachet paints and engraves under the name of Paul Van Ryssel. He knows or frequents Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro and Guillaumin. His house brings together works, objects, an engraving press and a garden that Van Gogh painted several times.
The Musée d'Orsay recalls that the family collection included up to twenty-seven paintings, twenty drawings and three prints by Van Gogh. Donations from his children, Paul and Marguerite, played an essential role in the artist's current presence in French collections.
Why a digital branch?
Digitalis is a medicinal plant from which derivatives have been used for the heart. In portraiture, it functions above all as a visual attribute: just as a painter can be shown with a palette, Gachet is accompanied by a plant associated with care.
Its stem crosses the area of the books, connects the red of the table to the blue of the garment and prevents the foreground from remaining purely horizontal. It is therefore both meaningful and structuring.
The portrait belongs to a whole
Vincent doesn't just paint Paul Gachet. The garden, Marguerite and the musical interior of the house extend the relationship between portrait, place and family.
Marguerite in the garden
The doctor's daughter appears in a dense landscape of foliage and flowers. Its light silhouette is not isolated: it is absorbed by the rhythm of the garden.
Marguerite at the piano
The vertical format stretches the figure and the furniture. The light dress, green wall and keyboard transform a domestic interior into color accord.
Gachet witness to the last days
After Vincent's death, the doctor made drawings and then this print. It documents the real proximity of the model to the artist, beyond just the famous portrait.
Van Gogh's unique etching
Gachet provides Vincent with a copper plate, a point and his press. The painter then engraves the doctor in profile, wearing his cap and smoking a pipe. The image is more compact than oils, made of short lines and a vibrating network.
This experiment is not a third painted version of the portrait. It is a print, therefore an image designed to be inked and printed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents it as the only etching created by Van Gogh.
What does "record value" really mean?
The figure most often cited is accurate provided that the date, costs and historical nature of the record are specified.
Christie's sells the first version in New York.
Hammer hammer hammer auction price.
Buyer commission, bringing the total to 82.5 million.
Estimate range published before sale.
Van Gogh painted the first version during the last weeks of his life.
The painting joins the Städel and becomes a major work in its presentation of modern art.
The Nazi regime confiscated the work from the museum. His journey illustrates the violence exercised against modern German collections.
The painting entered the collection of banker Siegfried Kramarsky and was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a long time.
The Kramarsky estate is putting it up for sale. Japanese buyer Ryoei Saito pays $82.5 million including fees.
The Städel indicates that the painting has not been publicly shown since the historic sale. The information reported about its subsequent owners is not sufficient to establish a certain current location.
A portrait in the middle of a dazzling production
Vincent arrived in Auvers in May 1890 after his stay in Saint-Rémy. He wants to be closer to Theo and return to the North, while remaining followed by a doctor. In just over two months, he produced around seventy-five paintings and around fifty drawings according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Doctor Gachet is therefore not an isolated parenthesis. His portrait belongs to the same moment as the gardens, the thatched-roof houses, the fields, the church of Auvers and the panoramic views in double square format. The leaning face and the agitated landscapes share the same question: how to give a modern form to an emotion without explaining it through a story?
Van Gogh died on July 29, 1890. Gachet was present in the last days and uttered a few words at the funeral. The family then preserved a considerable body of work, including the second version of the portrait.
Four works to place Gachet in his landscape
These paintings show the different registers that Van Gogh explores simultaneously: garden, village, rural architecture and large fields.
What to remember
How many Portraits of Doctor Gachet are there?
Van Gogh painted two very similar oil versions in June 1890. He also made an etching depicting Gachet with a pipe. The print does not constitute a third painted version.
Where is the Portrait of Doctor Gachet?
The second version is kept at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The first belongs to a private collection and its current location is not reliably publicly confirmed.
Which version sold for $82.5 million?
The first version, formerly at Städel then in the Kramarsky collection, was sold at Christie's in New York on May 15, 1990 for $75 million at the hammer, including $82.5 million in fees.
Is The Portrait of Doctor Gachet still the most expensive painting in the world?
No. He set a world record at auction in 1990, but that record has since been surpassed. Its price remains historic due to its impact on the art market.
Who was Doctor Gachet?
Paul-Ferdinand Gachet was a doctor, collector, painter and amateur engraver. He frequented several impressionist and post-impressionist artists and worked under the pseudonym Paul Van Ryssel.
Why did Van Gogh paint Gachet?
Gachet was to follow Vincent to Auvers and shared his interest in art. Van Gogh sees in his face a contemporary melancholy capable of giving the portrait a more general scope.
What does the plant represent in front of the doctor?
It is a branch of foxglove, a plant associated with cardiac medicine. In the table, it serves as an attribute to the doctor and a visual pivot. It alone does not prove precise treatment of Van Gogh.
Can we see the Musée d'Orsay version all the time?
It does belong to the museum's collections, but the hanging of a work can change due to loans, exhibitions or conservation. It is prudent to consult the official museum page before a visit.
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