Portrait of Dr Gachet

The"Portrait of Dr. Gachet" is one of the masterpiece paintings from post-Impressionist Dutch Master Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890). Vincent Van Gogh has produced all of his works, which included 864 paintings and 1,200 drawings and prints, within a decade. Van Gogh has done most of his paintings outdoors and had a special talent for capturing the subtleties of nighttime light and shadow. After completing the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Van Gogh wrote himself saying,"What impassions me most - much, much more than all the rest of my métier - is the portrait, the modern portrait...I do not endeavor to achieve...a photographic resemblance, but by means of our impassioned expressions - that is to say, using our knowledge of and our modern taste for color as a means of arriving at the expressions and intensification of the character." And the portrait depicts the depth of character and involvement of the artist. Van Gogh has spent last months of his life with Dr. Gachet, who specialized in mental illness. Gachet was his close friend as well and was also an art enthusiast who encouraged Van Gogh to paint figures. Van Gogh painted three portraits of his doctor and friend, this version being the most renowned. In the portrait, the doctor poses in a natural and relaxed posture, his head resting against his hand. The vibrant coiling lines in the background follow the figure rather than establishing their own boundaries and suggesting the mood of the subject while creating a fluency in the piece.  The Portrait of Dr. Gachet is a very famous painting of Van Gogh's collection and is an intensely probing work which expresses the subject's sensitivity and discouragement. The expression in the portrait is more of Van Gogh's own sadness, despair and inner struggle and not of the doctor's.