Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise, this is the second version of Van Gogh's celebrated portrait of his physician Dr. Paul Gachet, who treated him during the final weeks of his life. Gachet, himself an amateur artist and art enthusiast, became a friend and patron. Van Gogh described the portrait as conveying 'the heartbroken expression of our time' — the doctor's melancholic pose embodying a shared modern sadness. The first version was sold at auction in 1990 for a then-record $82.5 million. This version has a complex provenance through the Nazi-era 'degenerate art' seizures.

The doctor's blue coat stands against a pale blue-green background, painted with confident directional impasto. The foxglove sprig in his hand — a cardiac medication that Van Gogh associated with melancholia — is rendered with delicate detail. The face receives the most concentrated attention: built up with layered strokes that model the haunted, downcast expression Van Gogh aimed to capture.