Dr. Gachet

Date: 1890
Medium: Etching and drypoint, enhanced with black ink on laid paper
Dimensions: 18.1 x 15.2 cm (7 1/8 x 6 in.)
Country / context: Netherlands
Movement / tradition: European and American art
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Attribution / role: Museum attribution
Pathway: European and American art ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

This portrait of Dr. Paul Gachet, made just two months before the artist’s death, is the only etching that Vincent van Gogh created. Van Gogh placed himself under the care of Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village on the northern outskirts of Paris, at the recommendation of fellow artist Camille Pissarro. The doctor was himself an amateur printmaker and gave Van Gogh a varnished copper plate, helping him print it on his own small hand press. For his first attempt, Van Gogh depicted Gachet seated in his garden smoking a pipe.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

Place in the artist’s career

The 1883 watercolour and chalk landscape uses earthy tonal structure; the 1889 oil landscape activates the surface through colour and directional marks. In Dr. Gachet, etched and drypoint lines replace painted colour. This final print shows that late experimentation did not mean abandoning drawing or moving inevitably toward brighter paint.