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The choice of Auvers-sur-Oise had been dictated on the advice of his brother by the presence of Doctor Paul Gachet, a doctor specializing in the treatment of melancholy. The painter went to his house every week to try to find a cure for his stress and illness. Van Gogh finds in his doctor a precious and sincere help. The practitioner helps him in his relationship with nature to discern therein motives of hope and serenity in order to distance him from his auditory hallucinations, his anxiety and his grief.
Paul Gachet’s property became his starting point for the exploration and representation of the village, its magnificent garden, its flowering plants and its still lifes full of freshness. His daughter Marguerite and her governess became the subjects of his first paintings in the village. Gradually he wide- ned his points of vision and exploration of the Auberge Ravoux where he lives, from the Town Hall to the Château de Léry and the Church. Unlike other artists, the banks of the Oise do not interest him with the exception of a superb painting in which he depicts leisure on the river.
Vincent Van Gogh is best supplied by farms, cultivated fields, cottages, bourgeois villas, women and children busy with market gardening.
In this brief period, he experimented with new directions in terms of colors, formats and themes. Despite his inner turmoil, he works with ardor, he paints small format paintings and seems to find a form of tranquility in the branches of acacias, the fields of poppies and the large flowering chestnut trees.
Summer nature is resplendent and Van Gogh likes to represent fields of wheat with their ears, vines, bouquets and vases of flowers. At the begin- ning, the colors are dazzling from red to intense blue, then come the stormy skies and the rainy landscapes which correspond to the moods of the end of the painter’s life.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
The Church of Auvers sur Oise, bedside view - in 1890 - oil on canvas - H 93.0 L 74.5 cm - Acquired with the help of Paul Gachet and an anonymous Canadian donation - 1951-
© Musée d’Orsay /Dist.RMN-
Grand Palais /Patrice Schmidt -Press service/ Musée d’Orsay