How Much Is Portrait of Dr. Gachet Worth?

Portrait of Dr. Gachet is a touchstone of Van Gogh’s final months in Auvers (1890) and among the most recognizable portraits in Western art. The sitter—Dr. Paul Gachet, Van Gogh’s physician—places the work at the heart of the artist’s biography and late stylistic development. While the 1990-sold “first version” is generally viewed as the more intense and coveted, the Musée d’Orsay “second version” remains a canonical late portrait, frequently reproduced and widely exhibited. Its art-historical importance is reinforced by direct association with the Gachet family and subsequent placement in the French national collection, cementing scholarly acceptance and public visibility. This level of cultural resonance reliably commands a substantial premium at auction for blue-chip masters.

Van Gogh’s truly great paintings—especially iconic late portraits—are extraordinarily scarce on the market. Most top examples reside in museums and private collections that rarely deaccession. Two autograph versions of Dr. Gachet exist; the Orsay painting has essentially zero practical marketability under current law, and the “first version” has traded only privately since 1990. This structural scarcity creates intense competition whenever a work of remotely comparable caliber surfaces. In price formation, rarity amplifies the effects of global demand across the US, Europe, and Asia, particularly at the trophy level. The scarcity premium is a core reason the estimate for the Orsay version sits well above the artist’s recent auction record, even before accounting for the painting’s narrative power.

Two anchors support the range: (1) the 1990 sale of the “first version” at $82.5 million, roughly about $200 million in today’s dollars on a CPI basis; and (2) the 2022 Van Gogh auction record of $117.18 million for Orchard with Cypresses. The subject’s fame and late date justify a premium to the 2022 record, while the generally preferred status and market mythology of the 1990-sold version argue for a modest discount to that anchor. Additional context from recent strong six- to nine‑figure Van Gogh results (e.g., late landscapes, top still lifes) confirms depth of demand for blue‑chip examples. Together, these comparables triangulate a fair, defensible $150–250 million range for the Orsay picture under auction conditions.

As part of the French national collection, the Orsay painting is legally inalienable under the Code du patrimoine. Any sale would require exceptional legal processes, and export controls would likely apply. The valuation presented here is therefore explicitly hypothetical: it assumes deaccession authorization, clear title, and free circulation—conditions under which the market would treat the work like any other top-tier Van Gogh. If legal constraints remained in place (e.g., a permanent in-country placement), the buyer pool could narrow and pricing could be affected. For the purpose of fair‑market estimation, however, the analysis isolates intrinsic value drivers—art-historical significance, rarity, and trophy demand—while acknowledging that present law precludes an actual sale.