Help
Search help
You can indicate which types of text you want to include in your search by checking or unchecking the applicable boxes to limit your search to, say, the translation of the letters.
By clicking on the ‘Search for’, ‘Select letters’ or ‘Sort by’ options, you can access more specific searches (for works of art for example), limit the letters that will be searched (by correspondent or by period, say), and indicate whether you want the result to be sorted by (computed) relevance, correspondent or date.
Click "Clear" to clear the search form.
Original Text
Checking this box will include the original Dutch and French texts in your search.
Translation
Checking this box will include the English translations of the letters in your search.
Annotations
Checking this box will include the editorial team’s annotations to the letters in your search.
Essays
Checking this checkbox will include in your search the editorial team’s essays that introduce the correspondence and correspondents.
Bibliography
Checking this box will include the bibliography in your search.
Other
Checking this box will include the chronology, documentation, terminology and overview pages in your search.
Full text
Will search the text for your search terms.
Sample searches:
theatre: will find Théâtre, Theatre, théâtre, theatre (search ignores case and accents)
chalk crayon: searches for letters that refer to chalk and/or crayon
chalk AND crayon: chalk AND crayon: searches for letters that refer to both chalk and crayon
chalk -crayon: searches for letters that refer to chalk but not to crayon
"natural chalk": searches for the phrase “natural chalk”
"sister brother"~4: searches for the words “sister”and “brother” within four words of each other
paint*: finds painting, paint, painter, etc.
Person
References to persons that appear in the translated text or in the annotation have been indexed. If you type a few characters of a person’s name in the input field, a list of the corresponding names will appear on the right (“ber” will display Van den Bergh, Bernard, etc.). Using the mouse pointer, select the name you are interested in from the list and click. This copies the full name into the input field. Now you can search for the person by clicking the search button.
Literature
References to literature (works read by Van Gogh) in the annotation have been indexed. If you type a few letters of the author’s name or of the title of the work in the input field, a list of the corresponding works will appear on the right (“hugo” will display a list of works by Victor Hugo). Using the mouse pointer, select the work you are interested in and click. This copies the full name into the input field. You can then search for that work by clicking the search button.
Work of art
References to works of art in the annotation have been indexed. If you type a few letters of the artist’s name or of the title of the work in the input field, a list of the corresponding works will appear on the right (“gaug” will display not only a list of Gauguin’s works but also Van Gogh’s painting of Gauguin’s chair). Using the mouse pointer, select the work you are interested in and click. This copies the full name into the input field. You can then search for that work by clicking the search button.
Sketches
References to sketches in the annotation have been indexed. If you type a few letters of the artist’s name or of the title of the work in the input field, a list of the corresponding sketches will appear on the right. Using the mouse pointer, select the work you are interested in and click. This copies the full name into the input field. You can then search for that work by clicking the search button.
Bible Reference
References to the Bible in the translated text or in the annotation have been indexed. If you type a few letters of the name of the book in the input field, a list of the corresponding references will appear on the right. Using the mouse pointer, select the reference you are interested in and click. This copies the full reference into the input field. You can then search for letters that contain this reference by clicking the search button.
F or JH number
Enter a De la Faille or Hulsker number to search for references to a specific work by Van Gogh.
Periodicals
Click the icon on the right to display a list of the periodicals that are mentioned in the correspondence. Select a title from the list and click the search button to start a text search for the corresponding title.
From Vincent van Gogh
Checking this box will list or include in your search the letters written by Van Gogh.
To Vincent van Gogh
Checking this box will list or include in your search the letters written to Van Gogh.
Sketches only
Checking this box will list or include in your search the letters that contain sketches.
Number (range)
Enter a number or range (e.g 100-200) to list or include in your search the letters with the given number or within the given range. By default, the numbers refer to the numbering in the present edition. Optionally, you can use the numbers of the 1990 edition or the 1958 Complete Letters edition.
This field will be set automatically if you select a period from Van Gogh’s life (see below).
Date between
Set a start and end date to list or include in your search the letters between the given dates. You can set the date by using the calendar buttons. If, in the calendar, you click and hold a forward/backward button, a menu of months or years will appear, from which you can select the required month or year.
This field will be set automatically if you select a period of Van Gogh’s life (see below).
Period
Click the icon on the right to display a list of the periods of Van Gogh’s life. Select a period from the list and click the search button to list or include in your search the letters from the selected period.
Selecting a period will set the corresponding values in the number and date fields above.
Correspondent
Click the icon on the right to display a list of Van Gogh’s correspondents. Select a correspondent from the list. This will list or include in your search the letters from or to the selected correspondent.
Place
Click the icon on the right to display a list of the places the letters were sent from. Select a place from the list. This will list or include in your search the letters sent from the specified place.
Relevance
Click the Relevance button to sort the result by relevance. The search
engine ranks the results based on, among other things, the number of
hits in the document.
Correspondent
Click the Correspondent button to sort the result by correspondent. This
will group together letters exchanged with the same correspondent.
Date
Click the Date button to sort the result by date.
