page_title: Paul Gachet
section_title: Gachet and Vincent van Gogh
hierarchical_section_title: Paul Gachet / Gachet and Vincent van Gogh
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) Dokter Paul Gachet - Musée d'Orsay Parijs
context_page_description: Paul-Ferdinand Gachet was a French physician most famous for treating the painter Vincent van Gogh during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. Gachet was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement. He was an amateur painter, signing his works "Paul van Ryssel", referring to his birthplace: Rijssel is the Dutch name of Lille.
context_section_description: Vincent's brother, Theo van Gogh, thought that Gachet's background and sensitivity toward artists would make him an ideal doctor for Vincent during his recovery. Very soon after he began seeing Gachet, however, Vincent began to doubt the doctor's usefulness. Vincent described Gachet as: "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much".
  Gachet has come in for much criticism over the years regarding Van Gogh's suicide after ten weeks of consultation.  However, Van Gogh was either unable or unwilling to follow his doctors' advice to cut back on alcohol and smoking.  According to Arnold, "there was not much else available to any physician of the day which could have reversed the course of Vincent's illness," and he summarizes the medical treatment that Van Gogh received from his various doctors thus: "The overall assessment is rather that they did as well as expected with an unfamiliar disease and a difficult patient."
caption: Paul Gachet, painting by Vincent van Gogh (1890), second version (see below)
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