The Analysis Of Vincent Van Gogh's Portrait Of Dr. Gachet

The “Portrait of Dr.Gachet” is a portrait made by Vincent van Gogh. There are two versions of the painting, but this is going to be about the first version he made. It was painted in the year 1890. It was painted at Auvers-sur-Oise in France by Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890). Vincent painted it in the Post-Impressionist art historical period. Vincent was from the Netherlands and part of the Post-Impressionist movement. The Post-Impressionist art period was started in France led by four people including Vincent van Gogh. It was first started in 1886. Post-Impressionism and Vincent van Gogh challenged the Impressionist movement by not using naturalistic rendering of light and colour, so they focused on little details.

Vincent decided to paint his doctor named “Paul-Ferdinand Gachet”. Dr Gachet had been looking after Vincent for quite a while when he painted the portrait. Vincent van Gogh painted Dr Gachet as he was the one who looked after Vincent while he was sick and, in the asylum, and, Vincent was very good friends with Dr Gachet. The canvas on which he painted was 67.0cm x 56.0cm. Vincent used a canvas for this painting and used the “Oil on Canvas” method for this painting. For this portrait, Vincent mainly uses dark colours, mostly blue and different shades of blue is used in this artwork. Dr Gachet in this artwork has been painted emotionally and he looks sad and melancholy. This is depicted in by his face which is gloomy and a bit frowny and it also is depicted by how he is sitting.

The artwork uses quite dark colours, like a dark shade of blue. He would be in a dark room as the dark shade of blue makes the background It looks like that Gachet is in a fancy room because of the elements of line in the background. In the plant at the bottom of the artwork, there is a mix of yellow and green which can show what season they are in and because of the colour used in the artwork, it would mean that it was autumn or spring at the time of painting. According to the vincentvangogh.org, Vincent wanted to express melancholy in the painting, hence why there is a lot of sad and dark colours used in the artwork. The portrait is quite dull as well and the shape of his clothes makes meaning that he is sitting down on a chair. The dark colours on Gachet could mean that he has a taste for dark and boring colours.

The artwork makes the audience feel like that he is in a small and not well lit room. For some people, they might start to wonder why Dr Gachet is grumpy and like that. The use of the colour red and green would make the viewers think that that is a vintage and ceramic table. The artwork can also make people think and reflect on their own personal problems and issues they face when they see his melancholy face. His face also makes the viewer think that he is working too hard.