For decades, a print of Vincent van Gogh’s only etching hung unrecognized on the walls of VCU. The print is a black-and-white portrait, a stark contrast to the rich colors of the painter’s more famous works. The interweaving lines that fade and swirl around the page form the face of Dr. Paul Gachet—the physician who treated Van Gogh in the final weeks of the artist’s life.
The print lingered untouched in the dark corner of an office. But when a religious studies professor discovered it, the Anderson Gallery rushed to reclaim it and have it authenticated.
Today, the rare print Man With a Pipe (1890) is stowed away in Cabell Library’s Special Collections and Archives. It’s valued at more than half a million dollars. But how did it get from Paris to Richmond, and how was it forgotten for so long?
The answer lies somewhere in the earliest days of Richmond Professional Institute.
Man With a Pipe arrived overseas in the care of Henry Horace Hibbs, the first director of RPI. Hibbs was a lifelong art lover and a key player in the establishment of the School of the Arts in 1928. He traveled to Europe regularly to acquire new works for his private collection.
Though sales of Van Gogh’s art regularly break records today, in the early 20th century he was virtually unknown. Van Gogh’s late print likely commanded a modest price when Hibbs picked it up.
Over the years, Hibbs donated hundreds of artist prints to RPI, including the portrait of Dr. Gachet. But until the founding of VCU in 1968 and Cabell Library in 1970, RPI lacked the resources to maintain a proper archive. Instead, Hibbs’ historic collection—containing works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—was scattered around administrative offices on campus.
In the 1970s, a new director at the Anderson Gallery was stunned to discover so much valuable artwork displayed as decorations at VCU. He demanded that the millions of dollars of work be returned and preserved, but at least one piece of Hibbs’ collection escaped the recall.
It wasn’t until the 1980s—nearly a century after Van Gogh created his only etching—that Man With a Pipe would be recognized for its true worth. Cliff Edwards, professor of religious studies at the VCU School of World Studies, was waiting for a meeting at the president’s house on Franklin St when he noticed something peculiar.
Cliff Edwards in his office. From VCU News.
“I looked in a corner, and I saw a strange little dark thing,” Edwards told the Commonwealth Times in 2012. “No one seemed to realize where it was, much less what it was.”
If anyone was to recognize the work of Van Gogh, it would be Edwards, who’s authored several books on the Dutch painter.
After being verified by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the etching impression ended up with Special Collections when the Anderson Gallery’s archives were turned over to Cabell Library in 2015.
In a 2011 interview with Style Weekly, Edwards pondered what would have happened had he not revealed the print’s location.
“What if I hadn’t told?” he said. “Then I’d be able to see it every day. I could just walk in and look. Now it’s put away because it’s worth so much. You don’t want it to be stolen.”
2018 marks 90 years of creative daring at VCU School of the Arts. To mark this occasion, VCUarts is spending this school year reflecting on our shared history and envisioning how we can continue to pave the way for creative practice in the 21st century and beyond. Visit the VCUarts 90th Anniversary website to learn more about the many stories that have shaped our school, and to share memories of your own.
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