Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Dr. Gachet, the physician who cared for Van Gogh in his final months at Auvers, leans his head on his hand in an attitude of deep melancholy, a sprig of foxglove on the table before him, the background rippling with blue. Van Gogh said he wanted to capture the heartbroken expression of their time. Now in private hands after selling for a record-shattering price in 1990, the Portrait of Dr. Gachet is among his most poignant late works - a melancholy modern man, painted by a melancholy man, just weeks before the painter's death.