1. In L’amour Jules Michelet speaks of ‘women of marble’ (filles de marbre) as ‘women of sadness’ (filles de tristesse). See Michelet, L’amour, p. 438.
2. Quinine is a febrifuge, i.e. a substance used to dispel or reduce fever.
3. Matt. 10:16.
4. The motif of this unknown drawing could correspond to the lithograph Workman sitting on a basket, cutting bread (F 1663 / JH 272 [2418]), which Van Gogh would make a year later.
[2418]
5. Baron Frédéric de Nucingen appears in several of the novels in the cycle La comédie humaine by Balzac. He is an English banker of Jewish descent and therefore speaks with a heavy accent. In Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, he says: ‘Le tiaple n’egssisde boinde’ (le diable n’existe point – the devil doesn’t exist). See Balzac, La comédie humaine vi. Etudes de moeurs. Scènes de la vie parisienne. Ed. Pierre Citron. Paris 1977, p. 494. Van Gogh made a note of this short sentence in his Antwerp sketchbook, but it is difficult to determine exactly when he wrote it down. See Van der Wolk 1987, p. 122.
6. Possibly a quotation; see also letter 183.
7. In the chapter ‘Il n’y a point de vieille femme’, Michelet writes: ‘For the rest, a lady is a lady’ (Du reste, une dame est une dame). (Michelet, L’amour, p. 385).
8. Evidently Van Rappard had finished in 11th (and last) place at a competition, probably having submitted one of his works that was shown at the ‘Levende Meesters’ (Living Masters) exhibition at Arti; the archives of Arti give no further information (cf. letter 176, n. 10). The number eleven has to do with ‘Carnaval’, or Shrovetide, the pre-lenten festivities beginning as early as St Martin’s Day (11-11).
9. Van Gogh used bête noir again in letters 188, 190 and 474.
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