An Insider’s Guide to Auvers-sur-Oise–Part Three
441
Visitors to Auvers-sur-Oise now have another reason to explore
this idyllic little village immortalized by Van Gogh’s presence there
during the summer of 1890: Doctor Gachet’s newly restored home and
terraced gardens. This past March 30th, on the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of the Dutch artist’s birth, the Gachet house was opened to
the public after a nearly five-year restoration period. It is under the
direction of the Institut Van Gogh that administers the Auberge Ravoux. Located
a brisk walk from Auvers’main train station, the house can be reached
on foot by heading down main street, past the Auberge, following signs
to 78, rue Gachet. Getting off at Chaponval, Auvers’ other train
station situated about 2 kilometres south of the main gare is another
option which, in fact, lands one in closer walking distance to the
doctor’s house. Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), an
early homeopath/allopath, amateur artist and champion of such painters
as Cézanne, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh, discovered Auvers in the
1870s through Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro who lived in
nearby Pontoise. Looking for a place to raise his children in fresh air
and sunshine, with proximity to Paris, the doctor settled in Auvers.
His wife, Blanche Castets, suffering from tuberculosis, needed a quiet,
salubrious environment away from the bustle of the capital. Because
his practice was based in Paris, Gachet lived only part of the week in
Auvers and did not see patients in the village. His three-storey home,
constructed in 1854 of locally quarried limestone, was typical of the
maisons bougeoises that sprung up in Auvers and the surrounding
localities at the time. These homes brought well-to-do Parisians to
Auvers who were attracted by its unspoiled nature. With train service
to Paris via Pontoise, the commute to and from the city was just about
one hour. During his two-month stay in Auvers, Vincent
van Gogh was a frequent visitor to the Gachet household. Typically, he
was invited to lunch there on Sundays, weather permitting, in the
garden beneath great spreading shade trees. Though the artist enjoyed
the company of the Gachet family, the doctor, and his son and daughter
Paul and Marguerite, he cared little about the fare that was served. Writing
to Theo in Paris, Vincent confessed, “I feel that I can do not too bad
a picture each time I go to his house, and he will continue to ask me
to dinner every Sunday or Monday. But though it is pleasant to do a
picture there, it is rather a burden for me to dine and lunch there,
for the good soul takes the trouble to have four-or-five-course
dinners, which is as dreadful for him as for me-for he certainly hasn’t
a strong digestion. The thing that has prevented me from protesting
against it is that it recalls the old times to him when there were
those family dinners which we ourselves know so well.” If
these meals en famille were stressful to the artist, they were most
enjoyable for the doctor who liked nothing better than to gather around
a well-laid table to eat, drink, and exchange ideas about art, politics
free-love, and homeopathy. In addition to portraits of Doctor Gachet
and Marguerite, twenty-one at the time, Van Gogh depicted the doctor’s
garden, now planted with a great variety of flowers that are symbolic
of both the doctor and his ill-fated patient. The painstaking,
immaculate restoration has brought the house back to its circa 1850s
look and feel, and like the Auberge Ravoux, the Gachet House is a lieu
de mémoire, a site of cultural heritage of great importance. What
does the opening of the house signify for Dominique Janssens, founder
and president of the Institut Van Gogh? “Auvers is like a big puzzle
with many pieces. You have the church, the cemetery, the Auberge
Ravoux, the wheatfields, the Absinthe Museum, Daubigny’s atelier. And
now you have Doctor Gachet’s house. For the first time in 136 years,
the house is again open to the public. What is unique about the site is
that it’s a place where Renoir, Cézanne, Pissaro, Monet and Van Gogh
all gathered. And like the Auberge Ravoux, there is nothing to see.
It’s all about feeling.” For reservations and information call: The House of Doctor Gachet78, rue du Dr. Gachet95430 Auvers-sur-Oise011 33 1 30-36-60-60 (tel)011 33 1 30-36-60-61 (fax) The house is open every day except Monday, April 1st thru October 30th.
*Alexandra Leaf is a culinary historian and lecturer. Her most recent publication is “Van Gogh’s Table at the Auberge Ravoux” (Artisan, 2001). She lives in New York City.
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Visitors to Auvers-sur-Oise now have another reason to explore
this idyllic little village immortalized by Van Gogh’s presence there
during the summer of 1890: Doctor Gachet’s newly restored home and
terraced gardens. This past March 30th, on the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of the Dutch artist’s birth, the Gachet house was opened to
the public after a nearly five-year restoration period. It is under the
direction of the Institut Van Gogh that administers the Auberge Ravoux.
this idyllic little village immortalized by Van Gogh’s presence there
during the summer of 1890: Doctor Gachet’s newly restored home and
terraced gardens. This past March 30th, on the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of the Dutch artist’s birth, the Gachet house was opened to
the public after a nearly five-year restoration period. It is under the
direction of the Institut Van Gogh that administers the Auberge Ravoux.
Located
a brisk walk from Auvers’main train station, the house can be reached
on foot by heading down main street, past the Auberge, following signs
to 78, rue Gachet. Getting off at Chaponval, Auvers’ other train
station situated about 2 kilometres south of the main gare is another
option which, in fact, lands one in closer walking distance to the
doctor’s house.
a brisk walk from Auvers’main train station, the house can be reached
on foot by heading down main street, past the Auberge, following signs
to 78, rue Gachet. Getting off at Chaponval, Auvers’ other train
station situated about 2 kilometres south of the main gare is another
option which, in fact, lands one in closer walking distance to the
doctor’s house.
Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1909), an
early homeopath/allopath, amateur artist and champion of such painters
as Cézanne, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh, discovered Auvers in the
1870s through Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro who lived in
nearby Pontoise. Looking for a place to raise his children in fresh air
and sunshine, with proximity to Paris, the doctor settled in Auvers.
His wife, Blanche Castets, suffering from tuberculosis, needed a quiet,
salubrious environment away from the bustle of the capital.
early homeopath/allopath, amateur artist and champion of such painters
as Cézanne, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh, discovered Auvers in the
1870s through Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro who lived in
nearby Pontoise. Looking for a place to raise his children in fresh air
and sunshine, with proximity to Paris, the doctor settled in Auvers.
His wife, Blanche Castets, suffering from tuberculosis, needed a quiet,
salubrious environment away from the bustle of the capital.
Because
his practice was based in Paris, Gachet lived only part of the week in
Auvers and did not see patients in the village. His three-storey home,
constructed in 1854 of locally quarried limestone, was typical of the
maisons bougeoises that sprung up in Auvers and the surrounding
localities at the time. These homes brought well-to-do Parisians to
Auvers who were attracted by its unspoiled nature. With train service
to Paris via Pontoise, the commute to and from the city was just about
one hour.
his practice was based in Paris, Gachet lived only part of the week in
Auvers and did not see patients in the village. His three-storey home,
constructed in 1854 of locally quarried limestone, was typical of the
maisons bougeoises that sprung up in Auvers and the surrounding
localities at the time. These homes brought well-to-do Parisians to
Auvers who were attracted by its unspoiled nature. With train service
to Paris via Pontoise, the commute to and from the city was just about
one hour.
During his two-month stay in Auvers, Vincent
van Gogh was a frequent visitor to the Gachet household. Typically, he
was invited to lunch there on Sundays, weather permitting, in the
garden beneath great spreading shade trees. Though the artist enjoyed
the company of the Gachet family, the doctor, and his son and daughter
Paul and Marguerite, he cared little about the fare that was served.
van Gogh was a frequent visitor to the Gachet household. Typically, he
was invited to lunch there on Sundays, weather permitting, in the
garden beneath great spreading shade trees. Though the artist enjoyed
the company of the Gachet family, the doctor, and his son and daughter
Paul and Marguerite, he cared little about the fare that was served.
Writing
to Theo in Paris, Vincent confessed, “I feel that I can do not too bad
a picture each time I go to his house, and he will continue to ask me
to dinner every Sunday or Monday. But though it is pleasant to do a
picture there, it is rather a burden for me to dine and lunch there,
for the good soul takes the trouble to have four-or-five-course
dinners, which is as dreadful for him as for me-for he certainly hasn’t
a strong digestion. The thing that has prevented me from protesting
against it is that it recalls the old times to him when there were
those family dinners which we ourselves know so well.”
to Theo in Paris, Vincent confessed, “I feel that I can do not too bad
a picture each time I go to his house, and he will continue to ask me
to dinner every Sunday or Monday. But though it is pleasant to do a
picture there, it is rather a burden for me to dine and lunch there,
for the good soul takes the trouble to have four-or-five-course
dinners, which is as dreadful for him as for me-for he certainly hasn’t
a strong digestion. The thing that has prevented me from protesting
against it is that it recalls the old times to him when there were
those family dinners which we ourselves know so well.”
If
these meals en famille were stressful to the artist, they were most
enjoyable for the doctor who liked nothing better than to gather around
a well-laid table to eat, drink, and exchange ideas about art, politics
free-love, and homeopathy. In addition to portraits of Doctor Gachet
and Marguerite, twenty-one at the time, Van Gogh depicted the doctor’s
garden, now planted with a great variety of flowers that are symbolic
of both the doctor and his ill-fated patient. The painstaking,
immaculate restoration has brought the house back to its circa 1850s
look and feel, and like the Auberge Ravoux, the Gachet House is a lieu
de mémoire, a site of cultural heritage of great importance.
these meals en famille were stressful to the artist, they were most
enjoyable for the doctor who liked nothing better than to gather around
a well-laid table to eat, drink, and exchange ideas about art, politics
free-love, and homeopathy. In addition to portraits of Doctor Gachet
and Marguerite, twenty-one at the time, Van Gogh depicted the doctor’s
garden, now planted with a great variety of flowers that are symbolic
of both the doctor and his ill-fated patient. The painstaking,
immaculate restoration has brought the house back to its circa 1850s
look and feel, and like the Auberge Ravoux, the Gachet House is a lieu
de mémoire, a site of cultural heritage of great importance.
What
does the opening of the house signify for Dominique Janssens, founder
and president of the Institut Van Gogh? “Auvers is like a big puzzle
with many pieces. You have the church, the cemetery, the Auberge
Ravoux, the wheatfields, the Absinthe Museum, Daubigny’s atelier. And
now you have Doctor Gachet’s house. For the first time in 136 years,
the house is again open to the public. What is unique about the site is
that it’s a place where Renoir, Cézanne, Pissaro, Monet and Van Gogh
all gathered. And like the Auberge Ravoux, there is nothing to see.
It’s all about feeling.”
does the opening of the house signify for Dominique Janssens, founder
and president of the Institut Van Gogh? “Auvers is like a big puzzle
with many pieces. You have the church, the cemetery, the Auberge
Ravoux, the wheatfields, the Absinthe Museum, Daubigny’s atelier. And
now you have Doctor Gachet’s house. For the first time in 136 years,
the house is again open to the public. What is unique about the site is
that it’s a place where Renoir, Cézanne, Pissaro, Monet and Van Gogh
all gathered. And like the Auberge Ravoux, there is nothing to see.
It’s all about feeling.”
For reservations and information call:
The House of Doctor Gachet
78, rue du Dr. Gachet
95430 Auvers-sur-Oise
011 33 1 30-36-60-60 (tel)
011 33 1 30-36-60-61 (fax)
78, rue du Dr. Gachet
95430 Auvers-sur-Oise
011 33 1 30-36-60-60 (tel)
011 33 1 30-36-60-61 (fax)
The house is open every day except Monday, April 1st thru October 30th.
*Alexandra Leaf is a culinary historian and lecturer. Her most recent publication is “Van Gogh’s Table at the Auberge Ravoux” (Artisan, 2001). She lives in New York City.
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