Portrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a Pipe

Portrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a Pipe

Vincent van Gogh

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Van Gogh made this print—his only etching—just six weeks before his death. In May 1890, Van Gogh left the asylum in Saint-Rémy for Auvers-sur-Oise, where he was under the care of Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet. The doctor was an amateur etcher, who signed his works "Van Ryssel." He provided Van Gogh with an etching plate and needle and the opportunity to use the press in his home. The artist chose to etch Gachet’s portrait, which he also painted twice in oil (Private Collection, Tokyo and Musée d’Orsay, Paris). This impression is inscribed on the inside of the folded sheet as an artist’s proof printed by Van Ryssel/Gachet and is richly inked and selectively wiped. Van Gogh expressed enthusiasm for the medium and wrote to his brother Theo of his desire to continue to collaborate with Gachet to create more etchings based on his paintings from the south of France. Regrettably, his death by suicide on July 29, 1890 prevented him from realizing the project.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a PipePortrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a PipePortrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a PipePortrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a PipePortrait of Doctor Gachet or Man with a Pipe

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.