Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890. by Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890 Artist.

Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890 Artist.

1890-01-01

photo, print, drawing

Library of Congress

Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909) was a maverick physician who practiced what later came to be called complementary or alternative medicine. He had a consulting room in Paris to which he commuted from his house in Auvers-sur-Oise outside the city. He was an art lover--an amateur artist, art collector, and a friend of many artists, one of whom was the eccentric Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90). Gachet and Van Gogh only knew each other for a couple of months: from May 20, 1890, when Van Gogh arrived to stay in a lodging house in Auvers, to July 27 of the same year, when the painter committed suicide. Van Gogh, suffering from a form