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The good doctor Paul Ferdinand Gachet (1828-1929) whom Van Gogh painted in 1890 a famous portrait sold in New York a century later at an incredible price of $ 80 million was not a reliable man according to the artist whereas history would tend to suggest that he took advantage of his brief relationship with the latter to produce numerous fakes.

« I think that there is no chance to rely on Dr Gachet », Van Gogh wrote in a letter sent to his brother Theo on July 10th, 1890. A comment that Benoit Landais, a specialist of the artist for the past twenty years, used as the starting point of his explosive book titled “The Gachet Madness” (Edition Les Impressions Nouvelles, Brussels) to denounce the trickery engineered by the doctor and his son Paul Louis Lucien Gachet (1873-1962) who included many fakes in his family's collection.

The story unveiled by Landais who has now been counting score of enemies after denouncing many Van Gogh works as fakes, started with the discovery made by a French couple in an antique fair in central France of a drawing executed on the back of a print by the 18^th Century Italian artist Bernardo Bellotto showing the town of Dresden. This large drawing representing Dr Gachet seated was found hidden at the back of a mirror. It was titled “Paul Van Ryssel, De Lille” on the back and bore the signature “Vincent” together with the date of 1890.

The two treasure hunters first thought they had discovered a true Van Gogh drawing after taking it from this mirror but a close examination proved without doubt that it was simply an interpretation made by Blanche Adèle Derousse who alongside Paul Louis Gachet trained to make copies of the artist's works in the doctor's house, and thus for a strange purpose.

According to Benoît Landais, Blanche Derousse probably executed this drawing with the help of a photographic plaque representing the doctor before his son took 30 years later the decision to hide it behind that big mirror.

Another clue tending to indicate that it was a mere copy lied in the fact that the crossed hands of the sitter were the same shown on the portrait by Van Gogh of the « Old Tanguy » who used to sell him colors and canvasses in Paris. The fact that the doctor's son decided to hide  it  instead of destroying the evidence that the Gachet family had been producing fakes might be interpreted as a way to pull bacon at those he tricked during all his long life.

Another embarrassing element was the execution of an etching representing Dr Gachet smoking a pipe which Van Gogh was believed to have made on his arrival at the doctor's house in Auvers. Strangely enough, it bore the date May 15^th 1890 whereas the artist only came there ten days later.

A whole legend was thus fabricated by both the doctor and his son regarding this unique etching allegedly realised by Van Gogh while other dubious works were among their collection, notably the “Park of the Asylum ” offered by the latter to the son of Theo Van Gogh who then gave it to the Van Gogh Foundation in 1954 and now in the Van Gogh Museum not to mention also the second portrait of Dr Gachet allegedly painted by Vincent now at the Orsay Museum and the portrait of two children all deriving from a series of watercolours made by Blanche Derousse.

Dr Gachet's son perpetuated cunningly the memory of his father in exaggerating the relationship he had with Van Gogh during only 35 days to the point of becoming a major actor in the making of the artist's legend before donating to the Louvre Museum part of his collection, which included alas many fakes, Landais noted while such gesture enabled him to be made commander of the Legion of Honour order.

Nobody thus dared to question the authenticity of such collection though Germain Bazin, the then curator of the department of paintings at the Louvre, expressed serious doubts without going as far as to question publicly its provenance. According to Landais, numerous oils given as by Van Gogh were in fact produced by Blanche Derousse, such as the “ Acacia branch”, now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm or the “Chestnut-tree flower branches in a pot” hanging at the Bührle Foundation in Zurich.

From the beginning of the 1890's, Dr Gachet thus produced forged Van Gogh works in his house before tricking Johanna Bonger (1892-1925), the widow of Theo Van Gogh, notably with the Man with a pipe etching. Johanna was therefore induced to believe that it had been made by her brother in law before she went to question the frankness of gachet junior who during several years bombarded her with flattering letters until the day she decided to ask him to receive at his home Jacob Baart de la Faille (1886-1959) the employee of an Amsterdam auction house who was then embarking in the making of the first catalogue raisonné of Van Gogh's works

Having managed to have the copper plate of “The Man with a pipe” and the 61 prints taken from it declared as genuine, Dr Gachet's son probably felt uneasy at the prospect of receiving de la Faille at his place. He thus  did all he could not to arouse his suspicion regarding his collection and his artifice of war did work during 30 years until the moment de la Faille started to criticise his muteness as well as the value of his allegations whereas Johanna's son also went to suspect a major trickery when he wrote to the Van Gogh Foundation that in his view the whole Gachet collection was disputable.

Nevertheless, Dr Gachet's son cleverly used de la Faille catalogue to promote his collection and donate several fakes to the Louvre while Bazin, sensing that he had been tricked, did all he could to avoid the public disclosure of such imposture. According to Landais, the collection included no less than 44 fakes while the dubious donor had gone as far as taking advantage of the famous dealer Georges Wildenstein who bought several works from him and thus indirectly became an accomplice of his monumental fraud.

Dr Gachet's son died at 89 without facing any trouble regarding his trickery. Though being informed of his mischievous conduct suspected by de la Faille, Bazin and others, the Van Gogh Committee turned a blind eye on this and so did the French museums, probably for fear of having several Van Gogh works discarded.

According to Landais, Dr Gachet's was a formidable wire-puller who had the incredible cheek of playing not only on the protection of a « my father told me » pretense to avoid any rebuke regarding possible errors but also on the myth of Van Gogh's short stay in Auvers to have fakes regarded as authentic works.