III. Genius and Madness

The “Portrait of Dr Gachet” is in storage in a granary in Berlin along with thousands of other confiscated artworks. Here it comes to the attention of one of the leading National Socialists: Hermann Göring wants to turn it into cash abroad. By a circuitous route, the work finds its way into the possession of a Jewish family in Amsterdam who are compelled to flee the Nazis themselves a short time later The “Portrait of Dr Gachet” goes to New York with them. There it not only witnesses how times change, but also how the image of van Gogh evolves: Is there any truth in the myth of the mad genius? Can van Gogh’s art be separated from his biography?