1. For Francis Montague Holl, The foundling , see letter 303, n. 16.

2. For Francis Montague Holl, I am the Resurrection and the Life , see letter 303, n. 17.

3. Joseph Nash Jr, At sea – ‘Therefore we commit his body to the deep’, in The Graphic 15 (10 March 1877), pp. 228-229. Ill. 1199 .

4. For Francis Montague Holl, At a railway station , see letter 303, n. 18. For this kind of ‘smaller version’, cf. the print Leaving home (27.6 x 18.5 cm), engraved by Edmond Joseph Ramus. On the occasion of the ‘Exposition universelle de 1878’, it had appeared in the magazine L’Art 5-2 (1879), between pp. 20 and 21. Ill. 2038 .

5. Charles Green, The out-patients’ room in University College Hospital, in The Graphic 5 (6 January 1872), p. 11. Ill. 894 .

6. Charles Green,“Princess landing stage, Liverpool”, in The Graphic 6 (24 August 1872), ‘Extra supplement’, pp. 172-173. Ill. 900 . After a fire on 28 July 1874, which destroyed the landing stage, the print appeared again in The Graphic 10 (8 August 1874), pp. 128-129.

7. Charles Green, Land once more! – A study at the sea-side, in The Graphic 6 (12 October 1872), pp. 340-341. Ill. 901 .

8. Charles Green, Here they come. The Derby 1871 – On the course, in The Graphic 3 (27 May 1871), pp. 489-490. Ill. 898 .

9. Edwin Buckman, The Derby day – A sketch in the betting ring, in The Graphic 9 (6 June 1874), p. 553. Ill. 657 .

10. Gordon Thompson, The return from the Derby – A roadside sketch at Clapham, in The Graphic 5 (1 June 1872), pp. 508-509. Ill. 1375 .

11. From August 1874 to May 1875 – except for November and December 1874, when he was working for Goupil in Paris – Van Gogh lodged with John Parker, Ivy Cottage, 395 Kennington Road; like Clapham Road, this street leads to Kennington Park (see letter 28).

12. Literally ‘nothing further’, here ‘absolute apex’.

13. For George John Pinwell, The sisters , see letter 303, n. 11.

14. Howard Pyle, The creche, or baby’s home, in Stepney (double engraving): The play room and The nursery, in The Graphic 3 (11 March 1871), p. 233. Ill. 1216 (t*810). The monogram ‘H.P.’ could also be read as ‘J.P.’, which would explain Van Gogh’s mistake with John Pinwell.

15. For Frederick Walker’s The old gate , see letter 199, n. 10.

16. Frederick Walker, The harbour of refuge, in The Graphic 15 (7 April 1877), p. 328. Ill. 1414 (t*180).

17. Hubert von Herkomer, Divine service for shepherds and herdsmen – A study at the Berner’s Hall, Islington, in The Graphic 5 (20 January 1872), pp. 56-57. Ill. 167 .

18. In all probability Van Gogh here means A sketch at a concert given to the poor Italians in London, in The Graphic 3 (18 March 1871), p. 253. Ill. 181 (t*162). The commentary accompanying the print says that the poor Italians come from Whitechapel (p. 251).

19. For Herkomer’s Low lodging house St. Giles’s , see letter 303, n. 10.

20. For Herkomer’s Christmas in a workhouse , see letter 278, n. 13.

21. Hubert von Herkomer, Charcoal burners in the Alps, engraved by Charles Roberts, in The Graphic 6 (28 December 1872), p. 608. Ill. 165 . (t*459).

22. For Herkomer’s A Wirtshaus , see letter 279, n. 6.

23. Hubert von Herkomer, A Roman cardinal and his footman – A sketch on the Pincian, in The Graphic 5 (13 April 1872), p. 341. Ill. 163 . (t*4).

24. For Herkomer’s A “Kegelbahn” in the Bavarian Alps , see letter 303, n. 8.

25. Hubert von Herkomer, Carnival time in the Bavarian Alps, in The Graphic 9 (18 April 1874), pp. 368-369. Ill. 164 .

26. Hubert von Herkomer, Anxious times – A sketch at Tréport, France, in The Graphic 2 (26 November 1870), p. 512. Ill. 158 (t*453).

27. For Herkomer’s Sketches in the Bavarian Alps – Arrest of a poacher , see letter 279, n. 6.

28. The engraving of a detail with two men after Herkomer’s The last muster : see letter 303, n. 6 and letter 199, n. 12.

29. For Herkomer’s The last muster (Sunday at Chelsea hospital / Chelsea pensioners) , see letter 199, n. 12.

30. [Anonymous], ‘Hubert Herkomer’, The Graphic 18 (26 October 1878), p. 438: ‘It was as early, too, as 1870 that there appeared in The Graphic the first rough draft of the composition of the “Chelsea Pensioners,” a subject that at first pleased no one but the manager of the paper, who commissioned the artist to paint him a water-colour drawing of it.’ See also letter 306, n. 9.

31. Van Gogh’s remark relates to the print engraved by Charles Roberts, The Paris exhibition – A sketch in the English fine art court, in The Graphic 17 (29 June 1878), p. 648. Ill. 2039 (t*451). The commentary reads: ‘a motley crowd frequently encircles certain pictures of which the subjects attract the popular taste. Such a one is Mr. Hubert Herkomer’s “Last Muster”’ (p. 634).

32. For Matthew White Ridley’s The miner , see letter 279, n. 1.

33. For Ridley’s The Oxford and Cambridge Universities boat-race , see letter 302, n. 7.

34. For Ridley’s The East London hospital for children , see letter 279, n. 3.

35. For Ridley’s series Pits and pitmen , see the six sheets listed in letter 303, n. 1.

36. Charles Joseph Staniland, A colliery explosion – The rush to the pit’s mouth, in The Graphic 21 (31 January 1880), pp. 112-113. Ill. 1352 .

37. Edwin Austin Abbey, Christmas in old Virginia, engraved by Joseph Swain, in The Graphic 22 (25 December 1880), pp. 660-661. Ill. 473 .

38. Van Gogh may have meant the print Afternoon in King’s road by Caldecott, which he had previously mentioned to Van Rappard; see letters 276, n. 9 and 309, n. 16.

39. William Small, The Caxton celebrations, in The Graphic 15 (30 June 1877), pp. 616-617. Ill. 1334 . Van Gogh misspelled the name of the fifteenth-century printer William Caxton as ‘Claxton’ (again in letter 307). The comparison with Henri Leys must have been suggested by the fact that he too had a taste for historical subjects (cf. letter 354).

40. William Small, An English ploughing match, in The Graphic 11 (13 March 1875), Supplement, between pp. 264-265. Ill. 1340 .

41. William Small, A queue in Paris during the siege, in The Graphic 3 (11 March 1871), p. 217. Ill. 1342 (t*128).

42. These are the series Irish sketches and London sketches by William Small which had appeared in the magazine between 1871 and 1873. Several prints from them are in the estate. From the Irish series these are: The Western Highlands, Connemara: Poteen, in The Graphic 4 (7 October 1871), p. 349 (Ill. 1338 ) (t*815); Striking a bargain, Galway market, in The Graphic 4 (19 August 1871), p. 184 (Ill. 2040 ) (t*688); Pilgrims to the Holy Well, Galway, in The Graphic 4 (16 September 1871), p. 280 (Ill. 2042 ) (t*443); and A Connemara washing; in The Graphic 4 (12 August 1871), p. 148 (Ill. 2043 ) (t*672). From the London series there are: A November fog, in The Graphic Portfolio of 1877 (Ill. 1339 ) (t*134) and London sketches – A tasting order at the docks, in The Graphic 7 (1 March 1873), p. 204 (Ill. 2044 ) (t*814).

43. Charles Green, “The girl I left behind me”, in The Graphic 22 (7 August 1880), Supplement, between pp. 132 and 133. Ill. 897 .

44. Charles Green, An Irish ‘Patern’ at Balla County Mayo – The ‘Long station’, engraved by Eugène Froment, in The Graphic 11 (23 January 1875), between pp. 96 and 97. Ill. 899 . Green himself described the churchyard scene on p. 78.

45. George Henry Boughton, The waning of the honeymoon, engraved by Eugène Froment, in The Graphic 18 (13 July 1878), pp. 56-57. Ill. 620 .

46. Joseph Nash Jr,“Take care of the pence”. Mr Bartley of the National Penny Bank addressing hop-pickers at Mereworth, Kent, in The Graphic 18 (19 October 1878), pp. 396-397. Ill. 1196 .

47. Joseph Nash Jr, On the sands – The lifeboat waiting for a chance, in The Graphic 9 (14 March 1874), pp. 248-249. Ill. 1197 . Cf. also Nash’s The morning after the wreck, in The Graphic 25 (18 March 1882), pp. 278-279. Ill. 2045 .

48. Joseph Nash, Sunday evening at sea – A sketch on board a British fishing boat, in The Graphic 10 (19 September 1874), Supplement, between pp. 292 and 293. Ill. 1198 .

49. It is not certain whether Van Gogh wrote ‘en’ (and) or ‘in’ (in), but there is a good chance that two prints are involved. For one thing no engraving by Edward John Gregory entitled Hospital in Paris during the siege has been found in The Graphic. Probably, therefore, by ‘Hospital’ Van Gogh meant the same print by Gregory that he refers to as ‘Ambulance in a theatre’ in letter 307: The theatre of war – The epilogue (‘From a sketch at Beaugency, by Sydney Hall’), in The Graphic 3 (11 February 1871), pp. 128-129. Ill. 2046 . In addition, the fact that Beaugency lies much further south than Paris suggests that two prints are meant. The only other engraving by Gregory that has to do explicitly with Paris is Before Paris – Waiting for the sortie, December 3, in The Graphic 2 (17 December 1870), p. 577. Ill. 2047 .

50. For Edwin Buckman’s The Londoner’s holiday – Hampstead Heath , see letter 302, n. 17.

51. Samuel Luke Fildes, The bashful model (photographing a prisoner in gaol), in The Graphic 8 (8 November 1873), pp. 440-441. Ill. 2048 .

52. For Boyd Houghton’s journey to America, and for some examples of his work, which Van Gogh compares with etchings, see letter 303, n. 3.

53. Van Gogh is mistaken in attributing this to Arthur Boyd Houghton; the sheet is by Edward Gregory. Paris under the red flag – April, 1871, in The Graphic 3 (22 April 1871), pp. 368-369. Ill. 909 . A short time later he admits that at first he did not know ‘this sheet was by him’ (see letter 307).

54. For Houghton’s Mormon tabernacle , see letter 303, n. 21.

55. Arthur Boyd Houghton, Graphic America – Steerage passengers, in The Graphic 1 (12 March 1870), p. 348. Ill. 959 .

56. Mary Ellen Edwards, The foundling (‘From the picture by Mrs. Staples’), in The Graphic 17 (4 May 1878), p. 449. Ill. 801 . Van Gogh mistakenly attributes the prints to Edwin Edwards (cf. letter 232, n. 9).

57. Mary Ellen Edwards, A swimming-class at Brighton, in The Graphic 4 (23 September 1871), p. 309. Ill. 803 (t*148).

58. Mary Ellen Edwards, The special train for the meet, in The Graphic 5 (23 March 1872), p. 272. Referred to elsewhere in the issue as ‘A hunting party at Paddington station’ (p. 263). Ill. 802 (t*149).

59. The Turk Nuri Osman Pasha was a field marshal in the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878) at the defence of Plevna (Plewen), where he was forced to surrender on 10 December 1877. Various prints of him appeared in The Graphic, including His Excellency Osman Pasha sketched from life in his tent Septr 21st 1877 by Victor Lorie, in The Graphic 16 (24 November 1877), p. 481. Ill. 504 . Judging by the next engraving Van Gogh mentions, he probably had in mind Osman Pasha brought before the czar at Plevna, in The Graphic 17 (5 January 1878), pp. 8-9. Ill. 2049 .

60. Not only the composition but also the origin of the similarly anonymous print The reality of war – Comrades of the same corps, in The Graphic 17 (12 January 1878), pp. 32-33 (Ill. 2050 ) – it appeared a week after Osman Pasha – make it likely that this is the one Van Gogh meant. Moreover, he comments on their ‘reality’, the word that is also found in the title.

61. Arthur Stocks, ‘Sermon-time’, in The Graphic 20 (26 July 1879), pp. 88-89. Ill. 1358 .

62. Arthur Stocks, Her last sacrament: – ‘This do in remembrance of me’, engraved by Eugène Froment, in The Graphic 18 (31 August 1878), pp. 220-221. Ill. 1357 .

63. In the 21 volumes of The Graphic that Van Gogh had bought there is no work by John Evan Hodgson depicting navvies, or labourers. Most likely he is mistaken about the artist, and means Joseph Nash, Amateur navvies at Oxford – Undergraduates making a road as suggested by Mr Ruskin, in The Graphic 9 (27 June 1874), pp. 612-613. Ill. 933 .

64. The neutral title ‘Fishing’ fits two prints. These are John Evan Hodgson, The artist ‘Over the hills and far away’ (“Hands on now, sir! It will be going down the water, he is, whateffer!”); and Trout fishing – The first cast of the season. Both wood engravings are signed ‘JEH’. The Graphic 13 (10 June 1876), pp. 572-573 (Ill. 932 ) and The Graphic 18 (24 August 1878), pp. 192-193 (Ill. 2051 ) respectively.

65. Andrew Carrick Gow, No surrender, in The Graphic 21 (17 April 1880), Supplement, between pp. 404 and 405. Ill. 888 .

66. Francis Wilfred Lawson, Imprisoned spring, in The Graphic 17 (27 April 1878), pp. 420-421. Ill. 1038 .

67. William Small, Swan-upping on the Thames above Windsor, in The Graphic 16 (11 August 1877), pp. 136-137. Ill. 1345 .

68. William Small, The game of polo – A warm corner, in The Graphic 10 (15 August 1874), ‘Extra supplement’, between pp. 168 and 169. Ill. 1335 .

69. William Small, The Oxford and Cambridge boat race, in The Graphic 3 (1 April 1871), pp. 296-297. Ill. 1333 .

70. By ‘Queens ladies’ Van Gogh may mean Small’s print At court (‘Heads of the people’, no. 3), which is in the estate; see letter 293, n. 16. The commentary accompanying it reads as follows: ‘Certainly, for most young ladies, the first presentation at Court is a trying ordeal and though doubtless you have diligently rehearsed so many times at home, making believe that Mamma was the Queen, and kissing her hand in the most graceful fashion, yet somehow, when you have the real Queen to deal with, you find the salutation a serious matter, in spite of the graciousness with which Her Majesty receives you’ (p. 398).

71. William Small, At the Royal Academy, in The Graphic 21 (26 June 1880), pp. 648-649. Ill. 1343 .

72. William Small, The finish of the mile race – A dead heat, in The Graphic 19 (12 April 1879), pp. 364-365. Ill. 1346 .

73. Charles Green, London sketches – An artist on stone, in The Graphic 10 (5 September 1874), Supplement, between pp. 244 and 245. Ill. 892 .

74. Charles Green, The Derby day. Betting at Epsom – Outsiders, in The Graphic 19 (31 March 1879), Supplement, between pp. 544 and 545. Ill. 895 .

75. For the novel Quatre-vingt-treize by Victor Hugo, which Van Gogh says in November he has read and calls ‘noble’, see letter 286. The 23 illustrations by Hubert von Herkomer, Charles Green, William Small, Luke Fildes, Helen Paterson, Godefroy Durand, Henry Woods and Francis Wilfred Lawson were in volumes 9 and 10 (1874) of The Graphic. In the estate there are 21 sheets: by Hubert von Herkomer, Ninety-three – When the sun rose, in The Graphic 10 (8 August 1874), p. 133. Ill. 175 . (t*709); by Charles Green among others Ninety-three – Death speaks, in The Graphic 9 (27 June 1874), p. 617. Ill. 2052 (t*723); and by William Small: Ninety-three – The royalist leader and the boatman, in The Graphic 9 (28 March 1874), p. 293. Ill. 2053 (t*725).

76. Van Gogh, who added ‘Home and the homeless’ between parentheses himself, means Fildes’s print Houseless and hungry : see letter 199, n. 8. Fildes based his later painting Applicants for admission to a casual ward (The casuals), 1874 (London, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College) on this engraving. The Graphic discusses the work on 9 May 1874, p. 455 (this also happened on the same day in The Illustrated London News). Cf. exhib. cat. Manchester 1987, p. 147, cat. no. 74 and exhib. cat. Nottingham 1974, pp. 32-33.

77. For Fildes, The empty chair , in The Graphic, Christmas number, 1870, see letter 251, n. 11.

78. Given this description, Van Gogh must mean Christmas in a workhouse , in The Graphic 14 (25 December 1876) (see also letter 278, n. 13) – he added the year 1876 later. Herkomer’s Old age – A study at the Westminster Union was in the magazine a year later (see letter 303, n. 5).

79. Percy Thomas Macquoid, The reign of terror, engraved by Eugène Froment, in The Graphic 15 (30 June 1877), p. 620. Ill. 1093 . The title lacks the word ‘during’, which is included under Godefroy Durand’s print A Parisian street during the reign of terror. This illustration to Victor Hugo’s Ninety-three, in The Graphic 9 (25 April 1874), p. 395, is in the estate. Ill. 798 (t*166).

80. Percy Thomas Macquoid, Prize cats, in The Graphic 4 (22 July 1871), p. 92 (Ill. 1087 ), and Prize cats at the Crystal Palace, in The Graphic 4 (16 December 1871), p. 584. Ill. 2054 . Persian, Siamese and Abyssinian cats are depicted among others; Van Gogh refers to ‘Chinese’. Because these are ‘small sketches’, Kittens at the Crystal Palace cat show, in The Graphic 5 (25 May 1872), p. 496 is ruled out.

81. Percy Thomas Macquoid, The mackerel fishery – Sketches in a Devonshire village, in The Graphic 9 (9 May 1874), p. 452. Ill. 1090 (t*108).

82. Percy Thomas Macquoid, A disarrangement in blue, in The Graphic 22 (13 November 1880), pp. 472-473. Ill. 1089 .

83. Samuel Luke Fildes, Miss or Mrs?, in The Graphic 4 (25 December 1871), Christmas number, p. 19. Ill. 841 (t*167). This is an illustration to the story Miss or Mrs? by Wilkie Collins.

84. After cutting out the wood engravings, Van Gogh glued most of them onto large dark green, grey or brown sheets of rough paper. This is how they are still kept in the Van Gogh Museum.

85. For the Jewish bookseller Jozef Blok, see letter 199, n. 7.

a. Means: ‘een aanschaf waarvan het eigenlijk schandelijk is, dat hij zo goedkoop is’ (a purchase that is so cheap it’s really a scandal).

86. Theo’s support is never mentioned in the surviving correspondence; it is unclear whether he knew beforehand that a no doubt substantial part of the extra money Vincent had asked for this month was going towards the purchase of the 21 volumes of The Graphic. Another point is that letters appear to be missing in this period (cf. letter 301, Arrangement).

b. Read: ‘hoe blij ik ook ben’ (Pleased as I am).

c. Means: ‘bedrukt of beschreven papier dat aan zijn bestemming niet meer beantwoordt en dus verscheurd kan worden’ (printed or written-on paper that no longer fulfils its purpose and so can be torn up).

87. With this phrase about ‘change’, Vincent is quoting what Theo had written to him earlier: see letter 280, ll. 10-11.