1. Two portraits of the orphan man with a top hat and a white beard are known from this period, Orphan man with top hat: F 954 / JH 287 [3027] and F 954a / JH 288 [3028].
[3027] [3028]
2. The special Harper’s Christmas Pictures Paper. Christmas 1882. Done by The Tile Club & its literary friends. The price of this 32-page special was 75 cents. We have consulted the copy in the Widener Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1877 a group of 31 celebrated New York City painters, sculptors, illustrators, architects, writers, and musicians formed the Tile Club. A social club established at the height of the aesthetic movement in America, the Tile Club influenced plein-air painting, the establishment of art colonies, and the development of American Impressionism. On them: Pisano 1999. See also letter 333, n. 28.
3. George Henry Boughton, Peter Stuyvesandt and the maiden, engraved by Francis Scott King, in Harper’s Christmas Pictures Paper, p. 16. Ill. 2018 [2018].
[2018]
4. Edwin Austin Abbey supplied a total of six illustrations. Here Van Gogh would have meant two in particular that were printed next to the poem ‘The Dutch patrol’ by Edmund Clarence Stedman: beside the lines ‘In St. Mark’s church-yard – They see the shape arise’ (p. 8), and ‘From Maiden Lane to Corlear’s Hook – The Dutchmen’s pypen glow’ (p. 9) (engraved by G.F. Williams) respectively. Ill. 2019 [2019] and Ill. 2020 [2020].
This special by Abbey also included Winter, engraved by J.G. Smithwick (p. 17). Ill. 2021 [2021]. Van Gogh later calls this engraving ‘Winter girl’ (letters 302 and 309). The prints Mingo; Miss Fraishy and“Good-bye” illustrate the story ‘Mingo. A sketch of life in Middle Georgia’ by Joel Chandler Harris (pp. 24-25).
Harper’s Weekly 26 (7 January 1882) also had prints about New Amsterdam, among them Abbey’s New Amsterdam – The dinner, to accompany Charles G. Gray’s poem ‘New Amsterdam’ of 1655; p. 13. Ill. 476 [476]
[2019] [2020] [2021] [476]
5. Theo may have written about paniconography (a form of photozincography), which was invented as a replacement for the wood engraving and did have photographic applications. Cf. Van Heugten and Pabst 1995, pp. 19-20. He would also have provided information about working with transfer paper.
6. Jozef Israëls, Ecole de couture à Katwyk (Hollande) (The sewing school at Katwijk (Holland)), 1881. Photogravure Goupil, 1882 (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 2022 [2022].
[2022]
7. Bernardus Johannes Blommers, Départ des pinken (Departure of the pinks). Photogravure Goupil, n.d. (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 593 [593].
[593]
8. David Adolph Constant Artz, L’hospice des vieillards à Katwyk (Hollande) (Old people’s home at Katwijk (Holland)). Photogravure Goupil, 1882 (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 516 [516].
[516]
9. Theo had earlier sent descriptions of Montmartre, which Vincent greeted with enthusiasm on several occasions: see letters 260-262 and letter 288.
top