1. Vincent’s sister Anna had received a proposal of marriage from Joan Marius van Houten, the son of the family in Hengelo for whom she worked as a lady companion. Van Houten, a ‘calmly cordial, reliable boy’, according to Mr van Gogh, was a manufacturer of shell lime and a member of the firm of Van Houten & Ledeboer, lime-burners at Leiderdorp (Nederland’s patriciaat 44 (1958), p. 138 and FR b2538, 1 July 1877, Mr van Gogh to Theo (quotation)). Joan had been courting Anna since 20 May, and their courtship surprised not only Vincent but also Mrs van Gogh: ‘They’ve known each other since Whitsun, and he’s been here a lot. You can imagine how it surprised us’ (FR b2539, to Theo, 2 July 1877). Their engagement was announced on 9 July, and Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo that Vincent was also pleased about it (FR b2540). Vincent’s prediction came true: the marriage was solemnized on 22 August 1878.

2. Hans Christian Andersen, Vertellingen van de maan (What the moon saw). Van Gogh owned the edition Andersen’s prentenboek zonder prenten: Vertellingen van de maan. Translated by J.J.L. ten Kate. 4th ed. Leiden 1870; see letter 68. The passage quoted, which was taken from the introduction, varies somewhat from the original (pp. 3-4). In the poetry album made for Matthijs Maris – probably compiled between May 1875 and March 1876 – Van Gogh copied a number of pages from Ten Kate’s translation. See Pabst 1988, pp. 55-58.

4. Various books and textbooks on the history of the Reformation were in circulation, among them several whose titles included De geschiedenis van de kerkhervorming (The history of the Reformation), such as those by Bernhard ter Haar, Henricus Jacobus Hofstede, Evert Jan Diest, Jacob Gijsbert de Hoop Scheffer and F. Naef (translated from the French by J.W.Ph. Feith), so that it is possible that Van Gogh was speaking here of a specific book.

5. Rembrandt, Syndics of the the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Ill 1835

. As emerges from a drawing made of the Syndics Room by Henri de Braekeleer in 1883, the painting Aert van Nes by Bartholomeus van der Helst hung to the left of Rembrandt’s Syndics, to the right of which hung its pendant, the Geertruida den Dubbelde, Van Nes’s wife; both portraits date from 1668 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Ill 1836

and Ill. 1837

. See Honderd jaar Rijksmuseum 1985, p. 13.