1. Harry Gladwell, whose father, Henry William Gladwell, was a dealer in paintings and prints. His firm was located at 21 Gracechurch Street in London. See Bailey 1990, pp. 62, 81, 90.

2. In the ancien régime a sou was 1/20 livre; the franc is a later name for the livre.

3. On De Champaigne, see letter 14, n. 19.

4. Religion must have played an important role in their friendship. This is underscored yet again by the fact that Van Gogh copied out John 17:15 in the front of Gladwell’s Bible (private collection): ‘Father we do not pray thee to take us out of the world, but we pray Thee to keep us from evil.’ It is not known when he did this.

5. Cf. Matt. 11:25.

6. Regarding The blessing of the corn in Artois (Procession through a cornfield) , Calling home the gleaners and Evening by Breton, see letter 34, n. 11.

7. Gustave Brion, The end of the flood (Noah) (until 1955 in the Ministry of Justice in Paris; present whereabouts unknown). Ill. 1747 . And Gustave Brion, The pilgrims of St Odile (Alsace), 1863 (Colmar, Musée d’Unterlinden). Ill. 1748 .

8. Camille Bernier, January (Brittany), also known as Winter labours (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Ill. 1749 .

9. Louis Cabat, The pond at Ville-d’Avray, 1833 (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and Autumnal evening, 1852 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 1750 and ill. 1751 .

10. Emile Adélard Breton, Winter evening, 1871 (Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble). Ill. 1752 .

11. Karl Bodmer, Fontainebleau in autumn, Salon 1850-1851 (Sarlat-La Canéda, Mairie). Ill. 1753 ; cf. letter 35, n. 7.

12. Théophile Emmanuel Duverger, The labourer and his children (present whereabouts unknown). See exhib. cat. Paris 1974, p. 68, cat. no. 75, with ill. A replica of the painting in Hamburg, Kunsthalle. Ill. 1754 .

13. Regarding Millet’s The church of Gréville , see letter 36, n. 9.

14. Charles-François Daubigny, Spring, 1857 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 1755 . Autumn is probably Lock in the valley of Optevoz (Isère), 1855 (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts). Ill. 1756 . See exhib. cat. Paris 1974, p. 60, cat. nos. 62-63.

15. Louis-François Français, The end of winter, 1853 (Manilla, French Embassy). Ill. 1757 . Van Gogh’s mention of The cemetery actually refers to the painting Orpheus of 1863, which has an antique tomb in the background (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Ill. 1758 .

16. On Gleyre’s Evening (Lost illusions) , see letter 38, n. 2.

17. Ernest Hébert, Christ on the Mount of Olives (The kiss of Judas) (La Tronche, Musée Hébert). Ill. 1759 . On Malaria, see letter 29, n. 7.

18. Rosa Bonheur, Ploughing in the Nivernais, 1849 (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Ill. 1760 .

19. Jules Joseph Dauban, The reception of a stranger among the Trappist monks, 1864 (Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts). Ill. 1761 . The precise text in the painting reads: ‘L’homme s agite et diev le mène. – / Qvi vous recoit / me recoit / et qvi me / recoit, recoit celvi qvi m’a envoye / – St Mat Che X.UT XXXX’. ‘Man proposes and God disposes. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.’ For the source of the first part, see letter 35, n. 2; the second part is Matt. 10:40.

20. Eccl. 9:10.

21. This advice was given in letter 50.

22. The passage ‘From here I see a lady’ from the chapter ‘Les aspirations de l’automne’ in Jules Michelet’s L’amour. See letter 14, n. 19.

23. Cf. Prov. 25:16, ‘Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.’

24. The French writers’ duo Erckmann-Chatrian, very popular in those days, was formed by (Charles) Alexandre Chatrian and Emile Erckmann. Nineteenth-century critics praised their expressive, lively and entertaining style. Histoire d’un conscrit de 1813 (1864) is about a conscript who is called to arms at the end of the Napoleonic War; the sequel, Waterloo, suite du conscrit de 1813 (1865), dwells on the horrors of war, allowing the authors’ pacifist vision to emerge. The sentimental L’ami Fritz (1864) tells the story of the bon vivant Fritz, who falls in love with the peasant girl Sûzel. The authors paints a detailed picture of everyday life in idyllic Alsace. Madame Thérèse (1863) is set in a peaceful village in the Vosges in 1793. After a skirmish between a battalion of Republicans and enemy cavalry, the camp follower Madame Thérèse is left behind, wounded. Jacob Wagner, the local doctor, saves the good-natured woman, and later on, when she is nearly taken captive, Wagner joins the Republicans and becomes the batallion doctor. When peace has been restored, Jacob and Thérèse marry.

25. Matt. 6:11 and Luke 11:3.