Paul Gachet Paintings

Paul Gachet was the son of Paul Ferdinand Gachet. On advice from his fathers friends Emile Bernard and Armand Guillaumin he decided to become a painter. He was a pupil of Cezanne and then used his fathers breathtaking collection of paintings to learn the technqiues of the great masters. He abruptly stopped painting in 1920 to devote himself to writing about the work of Vincent van Gogh whom he dedicated the rest of his life to. He exhibited across France and Holland at the Salon des Independents and elsewhere from around 1903 until 1910.

Paul Gachet has been purported to be a suspect in the "murder" of Vincent van Gogh. It has been suggested Vincent did not kill himself but he was murdered by Paul Louis on the orders of his father to protect his fathers reputation and to stop the exposure of his fathers "mercy killing" of patients. Paul Louis was 17 the summer of Van Gogh's death and was with Vincent at the house in Auvers sur Oise when he died in the wheatfield.

Paul Gachet signed his paintings L Van Ryssel for Louis Van Ryssel - which translates as Louis from Lille. His father used a similar pseudonym, P Van Ryssel, Paul from Lille.

A retrospective of his work was held at the Wildenstein Institute in New York in 1954

Paul Gachet Paintings