L'homme à la pipe (Docteur Paul Gachet) After Paris and Arles, where Gauguin joined Van Gogh and where the latter cut off his ear on the evening after their separation, Van Gogh went to Auvers-sur Oise, where, thanks to Théo, he could count on the medical care of the famous Dr. Gachet, an art collector and amateur artist who had also taken in other artists such as Pissarro, Cézanne, Guillaumin, and later Sisley, Monet and Renoir. Dr. Gachet encouraged Cézanne to create his only etchings and succeeded in convincing Van Gogh to etch what would later remain his only etching, two months before his death. Dr. Gachet, who signed his paintings "Van Ryssel", owned a press and everything needed to be able to make etchings. In a letter dated June 17, 1890, Van Gogh recounts a part of the plans he had made together with Dr. Gachet: "I hope to be able to make a few etchings of landscapes of the Midi, say six of them, I can get them printed without charge by Mr. Gachet, who agrees to print them without anything in return. It’s certainly something that needs to be done, and it will be done so it can be a follow-up to the Lauzet-Monticelli publication, if I find the idea good. Gauguin will probably engrave the subjects of some canvases he has in combination with mine. His painting that belongs to you, and especially for the rest of the Martinique things. Dr. Gachet will be able to make those tables too. Of course, we will leave him free to make some for him as well. Mr. Gachet will come one day to see my canvases in Paris and then we will choose some to engrave." This letter clearly shows the fact that Van Gogh didn’t hold any grudge against Gauguin after the Arles quarrel. It conveys the evolution of his projects and his intention to make etchings. These projects would be cut short fifty-six days later, when he would commit suicide with a gunshot to the head. The artist decided to depict Dr. Gachet smoking a pipe in his garden. The expression of the gaze is very intense, with great rendering abilities in drawing the hand and wrist. This is an etching done on copper in the purest style, a beautiful execution that leaves us imagining what the engravings he had planned would have looked like. The work exhibited here is a heliogravure made from etchings, of which only a few specimens exist.