Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

 

Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Vincent van Gogh. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet who 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. Both show Doctor sitting at a table and leaning his head on his right arm but they are easily differentiated in color and style. In 1890, the first version fetched a record price of $82.5 million ($75 million, plus a 10 percent buyer's commission) when sold at auction in New York.  ps: you can see by my banner, I happen to like this painting very much.

There is a great book about this painting. It’s called

“Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece"

 Only a few weeks before his 1890 suicide, Vincent van Gogh painted a portrait of Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a local physician the painter had been fruitlessly consulting about his depression. Upon his death, the painting, like much of van Gogh's work, went to his brother, Theo. A few years later, Theo's widow sold it for 300 francs (worth, then, $58). In 1990, a wealthy Japanese businessman paid $82.5 million at a Christie's auction for it and promptly hid it away in a Tokyo warehouse, where it presumably remains to this day.

Cynthia Saltzman traces the painting's provenance through a century of art collecting and cultural politics. 

A Comment by Van Gogh:

(if Twitter existed then, this would have DEFINITELY been Vincent’s post)

“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 anotherblind man,

don't they both fall into the ditch?”