11. This visit to the cemetery at Zundert took place in the early morning of Sunday, 8 April 1877;
see letter 110. On 30 March 1852, exactly one year before Van Gogh was born,
Mrs van Gogh gave birth to a still-born child, whom they named Vincent. Cf. Hulsker 1985, pp. 21-22.
13. Although Van Gogh says that his
father had found consolation in the work of the French writer
Laurence Louis Félix Bungener at the time of the first Vincent’s death, in 1852, in fact the book he refers to –
Bij het lijkje van mijn kind: drie dagen uit het leven van een vader (Keeping vigil over the body of my child: three days in the life of a father) – was not published until 1863. Translated by W.G. Brill. Amsterdam 1863. The original version is
Trois jours de la vie d’un père: quelques pages intimes. Paris and Geneva 1863. This consolatory volume is the only work in Bungener’s oeuvre that would have been appropriate to the occasion.
Bij het lijkje van mijn kind was written in the form of a diary covering the time from the death of Madeleine, the writer’s daughter, until her burial three days later. Bungener describes his life with his daughter, how he coped with his grief, and how he found support in his religious faith.