Return to home page
Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7063 p404
September 18, 1999 Onlooker

Strange pair

There was some consternation reported lately when it was discovered that a portrait painted by Vincent van Gogh of his physician Dr Paul Ferdinand Gachet had disappeared mysteriously. It had been purchased by a Japanese man who had threatened to have it burnt at his death, to avoid death duties on so valuable a possession.

Strange pair

In 1890, Vincent went to Auvers to seek relief from depression and bouts of insanity. There he associated with Dr Gachet, a widower in his early 60s who was not only a medical man but also took a practical interest in etching and painting. In fact, Vincent commented that Gachet appeared to be keener on art than on medicine, and was bent on turning Auvers into a veritable artists' colony.
At first Vincent improved in mental state, but later both he and the doctor showed signs of growing instability. Gachet pronounced Vincent to be a great painter and a philosopher, but unfortunately the artist developed a violent antipathy towards his medical friend and even threatened his life with a revolver, the same with which he later shot himself in the stomach.
During his first week in Auvers, Vincent painted Gachet's portrait and that of his daughter. He later painted a second. In both, Gachet was represented with a foxglove, the significance of which is not clear. There is no evidence that Gachet ever prescribed digitalis for his companion, although it has been thought that in fact digitalis poisoning was responsible for Vincent's penchant for yellow and also partly for his instability. Gachet himself believed that van Gogh's unpredictable behaviour could be attributed to turpentine poisoning (in the course of his painting) and to his intense exposure to the sun of Provence.