1. For the series of prints The labours of the fields , see letter 156, n. 1. A drawing is known only of The reaper (F SD 1674 / JH 2), but Hulsker dates it as late as April-May 1881. Van Gogh later wrote to Eugène Boch that he had destroyed all his work from the Borinage period (see letter 693).

2. The sheets in Bargue’s Cours de dessin measure c. 44 x 58 cm; the drawings themselves vary in size.

3. A drawing after Millet’s The woodcutter (see letter 156, n. 1), no. 9 in the series The labours of the fields .

a. Read: ‘with them’ (with the drawings).

4. Regarding the Exercices au fusain by Bargue, see letter 156, n. 12. Tersteeg had already been called upon in 1877 to lend out his sample drawings (see letter 102).

5. Van Gogh made several drawn copies after Millet’s The angelus (The evening prayer), one of which is known (F 834 / JH Juv. 14 ), though this is probably not the one referred to here; see letter 160. For the etching, see letter 73, n. 6.

6. For the lithograph by Auguste-Paul-Charles Anastasi after Rousseau’s Oven in Les Landes , see letter 139, n. 9. Van Gogh’s copies after Rousseau have been lost.

b. Read: ‘with the sepia’.

7. For the etching The bush , made by Daubigny after Jacob van Ruisdael, see letter 35, n. 5.

8. Miners going to the mine (F 831 / JH Juv. 11 ). This drawing measures 44.5 x 55 cm. Cat. Amsterdam 1996, pp. 14-15. The ‘croquis’ is the letter sketch Miners in the snow at dawn in letter 156, which was done after an earlier drawing.

9. Van Gogh is referring to the two-part Cours de dessin by Charles Bargue. For this drawing course, see letter 136, n. 22.

10. It is not certain which lithograph Theo sent. It could have been one made after Bosboom’s watercolour De koestal (The cowshed), also known as Boerendeel (Barn). See exhib. cat. The Hague 1917, p. 33, no. 57. Also known are three interiors of stables – a watercolour (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet), a watercolour sketch and a painting – a number of barns and the watercolour Stal met vrouw aan pomp (Cowshed with woman at the pump). The lithograph made by Jan Mesker after the last-mentioned, titled Een stal (A cowshed), appeared in Kunstkronijk 17 (1876), NS, p. 46. Ill. 610 . Cf. Marius and Martin 1917, pp. 139-140, 142, 144, 147, 149, 151-152.

11. For Ernest Hébert, Malaria , see letter 29, n. 7. Goupil published a photogravure of it (London, Witt Library); see exhib. cat. London 1992, pp. 129-130, cat. no. 47. Eugène Alexis Girardet also made a simplified engraving after it (source unknown). Ill. 1890 .

12. Van Gogh is referring to Étude sur George Michel by Alfred Sensier; see letter 44, n. 2.

13. The prints in the series The four times of the day and The labours of the fields , which Van Gogh owned, are small woodcuts. See letter 156, n. 1 and letter 37, n. 16.

14. Van Gogh later added ‘as I’m trying to study this master seriously’.

15. For Millet’s etching The two diggers , which measures 23.5 x 33.5 cm, see letter 142, n. 18.

16. This was followed by ‘s’il plaît à Dieu’ (God willing), which Van Gogh crossed out.

17. The first issue of Musée Universel. Revue Illustrée Hebdomadaire was published in Paris on 5 October 1872. Single issues, each numbering 16 pages, cost 25 centimes; a yearly subscription in Paris cost 12 francs, and in the other departements 14 francs. The magazine contained short pieces on politics, the economy and cultural affairs, accompanied by illustrations; it also included independent prints, sometimes page-sized. Van Gogh’s estate contains a total of thirteen engravings from Musée Universel, all originating from volumes 4, 5 and 6 (1876-1878). Van Gogh must have bought two of them during this period.

18. It is not known exactly which three engravings after Millet Van Gogh had; the estate contains only Le bûcheron (The woodcutter). Seven were reproduced in the following issues of Musée Universel: Musée Universel 4 (1876), 1st semestre: La lessiveuse (Washerwoman), drawing by Edmond Charles Joseph Yon, engraved by Martin (p. 213), Le bûcheron (The woodcutter) (pp. 216-217), Servante balayant la maison (Servant sweeping the house), drawing by F. Dumont (p. 369); Musée Universel 4 (1876), 2nd semestre: La petite bergère (The little shepherdess), drawing by Edmond Charles Joseph Yon, engraved by Perrichon (p. 293); Musée Universel 5 (1877), 2nd semestre: Berger gardant son troupeau (‘Le père Rabatu’) (Shepherd keeping watch over his flock (‘Le père Rabatu’)), drawing by Dumont (p. 277); Cour de ferme, la nuit (Farmyard at night), drawing by Théophile-Narcisse Chauvel (p. 332); and Musée Universel 6 (1878), vol. 12, no. 293: Jeune paysan de Barbizon (Young peasant of Barbizon); the last-mentioned traced only as a listing on the cover, hence the lack of a page reference.

19. For Millet’s The sheep shearers (no. 8 in the series The labours of the fields ), see letter 156, n. 1.

20. Regarding Millet’s The sower , see letter 156, n. 3.

c. Read: ‘distraction’.

21. For the etchings by Alphonse Legros, see W.S. Sparrow, ‘L’Oeuvre de l’aquafortiste Alphonse Legros’, The Studio 27 (January 1903) and Catalogue of the etchings, drypoints and lithographs by Professor Alphonse Legros in the collection of Frank E. Bliss. Preface by Campbell Dodgson. C.B.E. London 1923.

22. The congratulations are connected with the birthday of Mrs van Gogh, who turned 61 on 10 September.

23. Van Gogh’s mention of Reapers binding sheaves probably refers to a reproduction of Jean-François Millet’s pastel Buckwheat harvest, 1868-1870 (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Ill. 3112 . This was published as an engraving in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts of 1 May 1875, p. 438. See exhib. cat. Boston 1984, p. 210, cat. no. 142.

24. For Woodcutter and his wife in the forest , see letter 141, n. 7.

25. Van Gogh owned the etching by Alfred Alexandre Delauney after Winter: The plain of Chailly, 1862 (Vienna, Österreichische Galerie). Ill. 1892 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, t*50). He applied a grid to this print, perhaps to guide him in making the later, painted copy Snow-covered field with a plough and harrow (after Millet), (F 632 / JH 1882 ). Cf. exhib. cat. Paris 1975, no. 192; exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1988, pp. 115-119, cat. nos. 41-43; and exhib. cat. Paris 1998, pp. 154-157, cat. nos. 83-85.

26. This probably refers to the reproduction Jeune paysan de Barbizon (Young peasant of Barbizon) which appeared in L’Art 4 (1878), vol. 1, p. 20, a ‘pencil drawing by J.F. Millet (no. 212 in the Alfred Sensier sale)’. Ill. 280 . The print also appeared in Musée Universel 6 (11 May 1878), vol. 12, no. 293 (as listed on the cover in London, Art Library Victoria & Albert).

27. Regarding The four times of the day , see letter 37, n. 16.

28. This question must refer to another depiction of a woodcutter and not the one mentioned in nn. 3 and 18 above. A month later Vincent thanks his brother for sending a woodcutter by Millet, after which he had just made a pen drawing (see letter 159, n. 5).