Orsay

Mademoiselle Gachet dans son jardin à Auvers-sur-Oise

Van Gogh settled in 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he must submit to the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet, artist in the soul and lover of the gardens, according to Theo's plans and the advice of Pissarro.

At the end of June 1890, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that he intended to paint the daughter of Dr. Gachet, Marguerite, 21, in a pose of a young woman from the countryside. A few days later, he wrote that he had painted the girl playing the piano, and the day before he had been posing for him in the garden of the family's house.

In this painting, Marguerite Gachet is dressed in white as a "bride", or at least as a virgin girl. The garden is full of white roses and pale yellow marigolds. It was said in Auvers that Vincent considered Marguerite a friend. However, Dr. Gachet had not given his daughter permission to pose for Van Gogh and when he learned that there were two sessions on two consecutive days in the afternoon, he banned any meeting without a third person. between his daughter and the painter and asked Vincent to end his friendship with his daughter

The American writer Derek Fell suggests that Vincent van Gogh would have been greatly affected by this ban and that it would have aggravated his discomfort. He writes to Theo that it is unfortunate not to have any feminine friendship, but that "the desire to marry has abandoned him, although the mental pain in this sense remains".