The Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece

by Cynthia Saltzman

Chronicles the work's one-hundred-year history, from its creation shortly before the artist's death, to its sale for $82.5 million in 1990

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Historical

432 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1998

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book full of international intrigue surrounding the art market, don't read this. There were three genuinely interesting sections if the book: 1. The actual painting of it, followed by the death of the artist and the birth of the "legend," thanks to Johanna Van Gogh. 2. Nazis! 3. The overheated art market of the 1980's.

The rest of the book lacks the intrigue necessary to make a story about the international art market exciting. At times it feels like just a laundry list of artists, collectors, artists that those collectors were collecting, and contract negotiations. This book really dragged for me in those parts, but maybe it's right up someone else's alley. I would give it 2.5 stars, but I'll round up because I respect all the research that goes into something like this.

[Gerard Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been somewhat disappointed by "van Gogh: The Life", I needed something to set me straight, so I returned to Saltzman's charming book on the life of a painting. It is a great read , very dramatic without being melodramatic (a rare experience where van Gogh is concerned...). Here are four things to love about the book:
1. So much art mythology centers on the lone genius. What your learn in "a van Gogh Portrait" is how super connected the artist was and how those connections kept his work on people's minds after his tragic death. Van Gogh entered the art business as a teenager, was deeply involved in his collection of prints and knew most of the major figures in Paris in the 1880s. His brother was a successful, pioneering dealer. He was not a lone genius, but rather part of a world in which he benefitted from the support of other artists.
2. Saltzman's does a trifocals job recounting the anxieties of 1930s Germany and the way the situation there enveloped people who thought things like this could never happen to them. It's worth reading for the story of curator George Swarzenski alone.
3. Closely related to these points, Saltzman narrates the art historical importance of the migration of talent from Europe to America in the 30s and the later rehabilitation of van Gogh's image with skill and attention to detail. Part of what one tests when one reads history is a sense of how differently things might have been without the events recounted...and the 20th century would have been radically different for art.
4. She does a good job helping frame the way Japanese collectors came 'out of nowhere' in the 80s and interpreting what their appearance meant...not only to the west (we've heard that story) but also addressing what motivated them. The xenophobia that attends to the 'loss' of the Gachet portrait is embarrassing, but worth recalling as the American economy is further enmeshed in the global economy.
I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who wants a new lens through which to view the van Gogh phenomenon...clearly his interesting life is not enough to explain this staggering values his work has come to embody (lots of painters are interesting). This volume gives us a sense of why everyone wanted 'Gachet' and what it meant to each person who owned it...p

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saltzman makes several factual errors about Vincent. This was discouraging to read. I know something about Vincent but I know nothing about the history of what happened to the painting of Dr. Gachet. Saltzman's research was supposed to be brilliant. Would the rest of the book be full of errors too?

The book was very interesting and I think that apart from the errors about Vincent, the rest of the book was probably credible. The strange thing is that after the death of the Japanese industrialist (Saito) who bought the painting at auction for the highest price ever paid for a work of art sold at auction, no one knows what happened to the painting after Saito died in 1996. But Saltzman never mentions that there is any mystery to the painting's present location. Saito died in 1996 and this book was written in 1998, so she knew of the disappearance of the painting. And yet I didn't know there was any mystery until I looked online to see who owned the painting now.

Some of the factual errors were: (1) that Vincent attended school in his home town whereas he had been sent away to school, which he found very painful; (2) that he came from a wealthy family of art dealers, which ignored the fact that his family was poor and his rich art-business relatives refused to help him once he started to paint; that we worked in an exclusive art dealer business, never mentioning that he had been fired; and much more. Really the first part of the book was disturbing, coming from someone who was supposed to have done such excellent research. But the rest of the book made up for it.

[Barbara Bagatin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bella la parte in cui racconta della Germania, in particolare di Francoforte e dello Stadel, il museo pricipale cittadino, prima dell' avvento nazista al potere. Di Van Gogh non sa molto, talvolta si contraddice anche, non ha una tesi sulla sua grandezza di pittore, e scarta a priori l' influenza che ebbe su di lui la malattia dovuta a eccessiva stanchezza, causata dal lavoro.
Non si parla dell' autore del quadro se non poco e superficialmente.
I protagonisti sono coloro che hanno avuto a che fare con il quadro: galleristi, venditori, direttori di museo, i politici nazisti, che lo sequestrarono dal museo di Francoforte, perché considerato un' opera dell' "arete degenerata".
Essendo un libro di storia dell' arte, solo 3 stelle perché manca l' indice dei nomi, e non ci sono le note. Infine, in un saggio non si deve mai scrivere: "forse". Poco scientifico, ma la parte su Francoforte, che va dalla fine dell' Ottocento al 1938, si legge proprio come un romanzo. Peccato davvero che quel Mondo sia andato perduto per sempre.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This starts where Smith and White's biography of VVGogh ends; it's the story of van Gogh's portrait of his doctor, one of his final works. Saltzman tells how it grew in value, until it was sold for an astounding $82.5 million to a Japanese businessman who was planning a golf community named after van Gogh. Unfortunately, he was found guilty of bribery and died. At the end of the book the painting is wrapped and stored --the property of maybe his family or maybe his creditors. The book was published in 1998. My quick Google search did not reveal what happened after that.

Truthfully, I skipped the boring parts. This book did not speak to me deeply, but it does illuminate the relationship between finance and art, and it makes me wonder what happened to the value of all van Gogh's other work. There's something troubling in the whole thing.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreadfully dull and boring. I think one would have to be really into art, I daresay even really into this particular painting to find this book engaging. I enjoy art, I suppose though at a much lower level than needed to appreciate this book.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

too boring for me

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a great movie, but my acquaintance with Vincent started with Lust for Life. Strolling the National Gallery and buying a postcard of one of his paintings which I used for a bookmark. Starry, Starry Night is on my playlist. In spite of that, and the wife being an Art History major, not really an art world afficiando. But the work and their lives, I find appealing. If you fit that description, then I think you'll learn a lot about Vincent, his approach to painting, and the people who loved him.

[Andrea Samorini]

___________________________________
FROM BOOK: Sulle tracce di Van Gogh. Un viaggio sui luoghi dell’arte

[Caleb J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Debated between 3 and 4 stars. This is a very specialized micro focused subject. The book is about V.Van Gogh's last painting and the hands it flowed through following his death in 1890.
Very interesting in parts and dry in others. Not for everyone though I am glad I read it.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book chronicles the journey of the portrait of Dr. Gachet as it has been sold and bought over the past 100+ years. The art history interspersed is interesting as well.

[Michele H]

I just couldn’t get into this book. I enjoyed the bio info on Van Gogh but i decided i wasn’t that interested in what happened to Dr. Gâchet

[Anna Tonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the life of this painting, especially in light of the recent documentary "The rape of Europe" and the motion picture "Monuments Men". Although there are some technical sections of the book, the stories of the former owners of the paintings, the collectors and curators that believed in this painting either by acquiring it for their galleries, private collections or museums they curated are fascinating; the story includes a nefarious history as part of the "degenerate" paintings that was cleansing by Hitler...as well as the exploration of what this painting (considered a master piece) symbolizes, its worth (one of the most expensive works of art ever to be auctioned) and its stature. In penultimate chapter, the author notes a quote by Van Gogh itself:

"And those high prices one hears about, paid for works of painters who are dead and who were never paid so much while they were alive, it is a kind of tulip trade, under which the living painters suffer rather than gain any benefit. And it will also disappear like the tulip trade. But one may reason that, though the tulip trade has long been gone and is forgotten, the flower growers have remained and will remain. And thus I consider painting too, thinking that what abides is like a kind of flower growing."
Vincent van Gogh to his mother

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and well researched book about one of the greatest portraits by one of the greatest artists, Portrait of Dr Gachet, by Vincent van Gogh. This book traces the history of the work itself, but also its provenance - how it bounced from collector to collector, was confiscated by the Third Reich, narrowly escaped to the US and decades later was sold for a record price during the art market explosion of the late 80s/early 90s. While not every part of book is equally exciting or interesting, the large marjory of it is an engaging and interesting history, giving you a new perspective on the artist himself and the machinations of the art world in the succeeding centuries. I really enjoyed this history, which has only been fully put together in the last couple decades. Some passages (especially when she discusses how it narrowly escaped the clutches of Hermann Goring and the moment of the legendary record breaking sale of 1990) left me at the edge of my seat! But then again I am a huge art nerd. Would recommend if you are one too.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once there was a doctor who promised to cure a very sick artist. He wasn't able to do so, and the artist later died, but the one fruit of their relationship, a painting, went on to make many other people rich.

As Van Gogh paintings go, "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" isn't nearly as famous as "Starry Night" or "Sunflowers," but it's had an interesting life. If you're looking for more information on Vincent Van Gogh, this isn't the book for you; Vincent himself is barely present. This is about the life of the artwork after the death of its artist.

The titular portrait weathered two world wars and the rapacious hands of the Nazis to end up swaddled in a Japanese warehouse after being bought at an auction for over $82 million. The Japanese businessman who bought it is now dead, and that's where the book ends. However, the whereabouts of the portrait are a mystery today. Here's hoping the elusive doctor will surface again before too long.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a history of a Van Gogh painting, which ultimately had the highest selling price ever (or now adjusted for inflation), and describes its creation, the art and collection world at the time, and the circumstances surrounding the painting over the first hundred years of its life. The greatest drama certainly came when the Nazis decided that it was degenerate art, and seized it off the walls of the Frankfurt museum where it had been a centerpiece for 25 or so years. It was effectvely stolen from the government and sold quickly by Herman Goering for the foreign exchange, but was taken by German-Dutch Jews to New York at the start of the war, and this was not a painting that had to be restored to its rightful owners. Even so the story is interesting, a good window on art collecting, investing, and art appreciation over the century.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

To learn of one painting’s long journey all the way up until 1996 is just incredible. Dr. Gachet has seen so much action through its years, especially during WWII, that for it to just vanish without a trace is disappointing. I’m relieved to learn that America has terms towards paintings and museums, but that Japan silently places them in a closed off area that no one will see is just, well, irritating to me. So many paintings that you can only see reproductions of in books and the likes is saddening to know you may never see the image in person, and this version of Dr. Gachet is one of them. To whoever owns it now, please think of us artists who long to see Old Masters and Modern Art and give us a chance by donating them to a museum!!

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious read, in that the breath-taking amount of research actually takes away from the story. Every aspect of the painting's sale history meets up with a meticulous wall of research, so that while I feel I know the how's and why's of the paintings travels, I don't feel like I know its life.

Still, taken in small doses (the only way possible, because a wealth of details can never lead to a crescendo) this book does serve up some interest. Even though I know the painting still exists in today's world, I was horrified as it fell into the hands of Hermann Goring and the Nazi's as part of the "degenerate art" roundup.

[Jgknobler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Van Gogh painted this portrait in 1890, shortly before his death. Saltzman follows its provenence from Van Gogh's widow to a Japanese businessman who purchased it in 1990 at a Sotheby auction for $82 million. The book explores how dealers, critics, museums, governments, economic and political forces and currency exchange rates all contribute to how a painting is valued and viewed. It is extremely well researched, very detailed and a little boring for a reader outside of the art world.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the history of a painting from the day it was painted to the day it was sold in 1995 as the most expensive painting to that time. It is a facinating look at the history of collectors and art trends in the 20th century. If the book has a problem the book is a little dated having been written almost 20 years ago but is is still worth a read.

[Julie]

I had hoped that this would be a People of the Book type of story that would trace the movement of a real painting from the time of its creation to the present. It’s possible that it will get more interesting, but I’m putting it aside for now. The huge amount of information and detail bogs down the narrative, and while it may be informative, it’s just too slow going for me right now.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this right after reading Lust for Life, which is really fun, so this book was a good way to see what happened to Vincents works after he died. I realize this kind of book is not for everyone but I found it easy to read and interesting. I also want to read the Rape of Europa next!

[Mythili · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always stories held by a single item, whether it's jewelry passed down through a family, a house, or in this case, a work of art. It's amazing how a seemingly unremarkable portrait of a countryside doctor could turn out to be worth millions.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd time I have read this book; it has a good deal of information not only about VanGogh and this painting but a history lesson about the 100 years of the painting and what was happening in Europe and America at during that time. A must of art lovers!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing story of the various owners of one specific Van Gogh painting.

[Rebecca SC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything an art geek could ever need: history, intrigue, mystery, and war, all told from the point of view of a single painting by a very famous tortured artist.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of information about Van Gogh as an artist, the art market, the Nazis stealing art during WWII. Well researched and well done.

[Christina Dudley]

Started well. I was very interested in Van Gogh and the painting info but got bogged down in the museum directors....

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

Seemed kind of dry.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author did a great job presenting the provenance of this Van Gogh painting, including backgrounds of the people, places and events.