MUSIM

In June of 1890 Vincent van Gogh finished his painting Marguerite Gachet au piano. He had been under the care of Marguerite’s father Dr. Paul Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise, France for a month. After Dr. Gachet learned that Marguerite, who was 22 at the time, had posed alone for this portrait, he forbad any friendship between her and the painter. Van Gogh had also painted Marguerite in her garden shortly before. One month later the painter committed suicide in Auvers-sur-Oise at the age of 37.

But how is this short story of a well-known work of art connected to the MIM? Once again, the archives come to the rescue! In 1952 the MIM received a donation of a piano described as “a piece offering historical interest donated by the son of Dr. Gachet of Auvers-sur-Oise – in memory of Peter Benoit and Gevaert. This piano is seen in a famous painting by Van Gogh.”

The MIM was aware that this instrument was in its collection and that it figured in the painting of van Gogh, however it was a bit of a mystery why this instrument was donated to the museum in Brussels rather than that of Paris. For this answer we must look at the Gachet family,

Paul Gachet (1828-1909) was a French physician and supporter of the arts. He was himself an amateur painter and signed his works as Paul van Ryssel, a reference to his birthplace, Lille, France, which in Dutch is Rijsel. Gachet also used the pen-name Blanche de Méin to publish articles as an art critic.

At the age of 18, Gachet’s family moved to Mechelen, Belgium around 1844. Four years later he would leave to study at the University of Paris. It was during his time at the university that Gachet developed his artistic skills and tastes, collecting works by Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet.

In 1872 Gachet purchased his house in Auvers-sur-Oise and it was there that he would welcome and support artists such as Pissarro, Guillaumin, Vignon, and Paul Cézanne.

In 1873 Gachet himself had sketched his wife playing the same piano. Perhaps Gachet had shown this sketch to van Gogh? The piano was made by Alphonse Juvenois, a Belgian piano maker working in Paris, and is in the style of Napoleon III.

Gachet’s son, Paul Gachet Jr donated the instrument to the MIM in 1952 with the curious remark that it was in honor of the memories of Peter Benoit, the director of the Antwerp Conservatoire, and François-Auguste Gevaert, the director of the Brussels Conservatoire and founder of its instrument museum. Both Benoit and Gevaert had been in contact with Dr. Gachet during their years in Paris. The Libraries of the Brussels Royal Conservatories contains several letters written by Gevaert to Gachet. The Belgian connections of Gachet’s family in Mechelen as well as his support of French artists undoubtedly brought him into contact with numerous other Belgian musicians who flocked to Paris to make their name.

A second lost portrait and a harmonium

In his 2020 publication Vincent van Gogh: Questions d’identité, Yves Vasseur says that van Gogh planned a second portrait of Mademoiselle Gachet, this time playing the family’s harmonium. Vasseur cites a document by Paul Gachet Jr in which he says that van Gogh had made a charcoal sketch of Marguerite at the harmonium but in the process of letting it dry in the garden it became stuck to a stone and was subsequently destroyed by van Gogh. Gachet Jr, himself an amateur artist painting under the name Louis Van Ryssel, copied this sketch and later produced an oil painting based on it, which has since been lost. The harmonium however, has been located in the city museum of Mons, Belgium!