2. This utterance of Eugène Bersier could be based on Matt. 13:22 or Mark 4:18-19.

5. Matt. 6:10, Matt. 26:42 and Luke 11:2.

7. Edouard Henri Girardet, Le Vendredi-Saint (Good Friday), 1861, after the canvas of the same name by Paul Delaroche of 1856 (private collection). This print was published by Goupil (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 1730

. See Bann 1997, pp. 269-270, ills. 166-167.

8. It is not clear which reproduction after Ary Scheffer’s Saint Augustine and Saint Monica Van Gogh was referring to. The painting exists in a number of versions, made between 1845 and 1855; prints by the following printmakers have survived: George Thomas Doo (Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum), ill. 1731

; D.J. Sluyter, and A. Beaugrand. There is also a lithograph by Arnaud Gerkens (in Scheffer-album (1859) and a woodcut by Chevignard. See Ewals 1987, pp. 303-305 and ills. 77-78; exhib. cat. Dordrecht 1990, pp. 57-59, cat. no. 42.

9. Mrs van Gogh’s birthday was 10 September. The birthday present had still not arrived at Helvoirt on 12 September. The Reverend Van Gogh told Theo that he had asked about it at the post office (FR b3572)

10. Since Van Gogh speaks of ‘Monsieur Hamman’, who was in contact with Uncle Vincent van Gogh, he must be referring to Edouard Jean Conrad Hamman, who had settled in Paris in 1846 (cf. FR b2566, 8 November 1877). Both Theo and Vincent knew the family. See also letters 3, n. 10 and 189, n. 18.