1. The differences in text in the various editions consulted reveal that Van Gogh knew Scènes de la vie flamande, by Henri Conscience, translated by Léon Wocquier. First series, new edition. Paris 1864. Van Gogh himself must have added the phrase ‘et elle pleure sur son épaule’ (and she weeps on his shoulder) (ll. 95-96); it does not occur in either Conscience’s manuscript or the editions consulted. Remarkably, the early Dutch edition includes, precisely in the place where this sentence occurs, a print by Eduard Dujardin depicting a girl crying on the conscript’s shoulder. It is therefore possible that Van Gogh had read this version of the book earlier, and had remembered the illustration while copying out the passage. An indication of this is that his version does not correspond thematically: in the print, it is the girl Trien who cries, whereas in the text it is the conscript’s mother. There might indeed be an edition in which this phrase occurs as a caption below an illustration.