a. ‘Drooge einden’: to be understood as difficult periods in one’s life.

1. Taken from the first stanza of the poem ‘Up-hill’ by Christina Georgina Rossetti, which was very popular at the time. See The complete poems of Christina Rossetti. Ed. R.W. Crump. 3 vols. Baton Rouge and London 1979-1990, vol. 1, pp. 65-66, 256, 317-320.

2. Saying: ‘This, too, will pass away’ (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The marble faun 1860); ‘And this, too, shall pass away’ (Abraham Lincoln in 1859, attributing it to an Eastern monarch). See John Bartlett, Familiar quotations. London 1968, pp. 615a, 636b.

3. Ps. 51:12 (in KJ Ps. 51:10).

4. The imitation of Jesus Christ by Thomas a Kempis.

5. For Reading the Bible, see letter 37, n. 4. The etching Les pélerins d’Emmaüs after Rembrandt’s Pilgrims at Emmaus is indeed by Johannes Pieter de Frey and is dated 1802. De Frey made two versions, one of which appeared in a series of prints published by the Louvre called ‘La Chalcographie Nationale’ (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet). Ill. 1740 .

6. On De Champaigne's Portrait of a woman , see letter 14, n. 19.

7. Jean Ferdinand Chaigneau made many animal paintings and was even called ‘the painter of sheep’ and ‘the Raphael of sheep’. The edition Eaux-fortes modernes, publiées par la Société des Aquafortistes contains three etchings of shepherdesses with sheep; Moutons en plaine (Sheep in the plain) (30.5 x 20 cm); Le petit troupeau (The little flock) (23.3 x 18 cm) and Femme gardant des moutons (Woman guarding sheep) (20 x 27.1 cm) (Paris, BNF, Cabinet des Estampes). Ill. 1741 . The last is reproduced here. See Bailly-Herzberg 1972, vol. 1, p. 67, no. 49; p. 98, no. 91 and p. 101, no. 104; vol. 2, pp. 36-37.

8. This print of Evening by Jules Dupré is most likely the lithograph mentioned in letter 37. Other prints Van Gogh could have been referring to are an engraving by Louvry, and the etching by E. Daumont after the canvas Evening (Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, dépôt du Louvre), published in L’Art. See Aubrun 1974, p. 143, cat. no. 321. Louis Journot also made an etching called Le soir (Evening) after Dupré. See Chalcographie 1954, p. 171, no. 6729.

9. Possibly the reproduction mentioned in letter 37.

10. For Bodmer’s Fontainebleau , see letter 35, n. 7.

11. Regarding Français’s Last fine days, see letter 40, n. 15.

12. Regarding Frère’s ‘Cooper’, see letter 37, n. 21.

13. This could be either of two etchings by Daubigny: one after Soleil couché (Setting sun) by J. Veyrassat (Salon 1857, no. 690), published in L’Artiste (27 June 1858); and the other after Soleil couchant (Sunset) (Salon 1859, no. 768), reproduced in Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1-2 (1859), facing p. 294. Ill. 1742 . See Henriet 1875, p. 170, no. 690 and pp. 132-133, nos. 84 and 172.

14. The comma Van Gogh placed after the number 424 indicates that the photographs of the works by Delaroche were included in the ‘Musée Goupil’ series: no. 424, Ghetsémané (Gethsemane); no. 239, Vendredi Saint (Good Friday); no. 989, Mater Dolorosa. The photograph of the Brion (see n. 15) was also part of this series. These reproductions were also included in Goupil’s ‘Carte-album’ series (produced from the same negatives but in a smaller format): no. 424, Good Friday; no. 679, Gethsemane; no. 422, Mater Dolorosa (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 1743 , ill. 1744 and ill. 1745 .

15. The photograph of Gustave Brion, Les adieux (The farewells), was included in the ‘Musée Goupil’ series (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 1746 .

16. Although the exact source has not been traced, the remark will stem from the following dictum of ‘un excellent paysagiste’ (an excellent landscapist), recorded in Charles Blanc’s Grammaire des arts du dessin (1870), p. 681: ‘Les peintres font de la peinture dans leurs bons et leurs mauvais jours; mais ils ne font de l’eau-forte que dans leurs bons jours’ (Painters make paintings on their good and bad days; but they make etchings only on their good days). That this utterance stems from Jules Dupré emerges from Karl Eugen Schmidt, Künstlerworte. Leipzig 1906, p. 296.

b. Van Gogh wrote the Dutch word ‘gezangen’ and then added ‘hymns’.

17. Hymn no. 265. By Horatius Bonar, Hymns of faith and hope (1857). Van Gogh leaves out the second and fifth verses. See The cyber hymnal (www.cyberhymnal.org).

18. Hymn no. 277. By Sarah F. Adams. Van Gogh leaves out the last two verses.

19. Hymn no. 291. By Henry K. White and Frances S. Fuller-Maitland. Van Gogh leaves out the second, third and sixth verses. See The cyber hymnal (www.cyberhymnal.org).

20. On Rossetti, see n. 1 above.