2. Theo had told Vincent about how the paper from Buhot that he had sent could be used. See letters 294 and 309.

3. It is not certain which Lucas Van Gogh means. It could be Alfred Lucas, John Seymour Lucas, John Templeton Lucas or Richard Cockle Lucas. It is possible that the print in question had once appeared in The Illustrated London News.

4. [Anonymous], Sylvesternacht (New Year’s Eve) in Illustrirte Zeitung 73 (27 December 1879), p. 543. Ill. 505

In the estate there is a copy that was cut out, so the source is lost (t*780).

5. Ludovico Marchetti, Le grand prix de Paris. Au pesage (The Grand Prix de Paris. At the weigh-in) engraved by Clément Edouard Bellenger, in L’Illustration 79 (3 June 1882), Supplement, pp. 366-367. Ill. 1103

6. Karl Gussow, Die beiden Alten (The old couple), 1880. Van Gogh may have known the wood engraving by R. Bong which was included in Ad. Rosenberg, ‘Die akademische Kunstausstellung in Berlin’; it appeared in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst. Ed. Carl von Lützow. Band 16. Leipzig 1881, pp. 142-151 (ill. on 145). Ill. 913

8. From the 11 prints of engravings after Montbard and Overend in the estate, which were mentioned earlier (see letter 275), and from this remark, it can be concluded that Van Gogh knew volumes 24 and 25 of the French weekly L’Univers Illustré (1881-1882). This magazine – which contained domestic and foreign news, serials and rebuses as well as engravings – also printed one engraving (noticeably abbreviated) that had been in Black’s novel; here it accompanies the poem ‘Comme il s’agitait tristement’ by George Price. See L’Univers Illustré 25 (29 April 1882), p. 261 (Ill. 2061

Van Gogh recognizes several figures, and this may be explained by the fact that the same volume contains a number of illustrations that are stylistically closely related, for example those by Richard Caton Woodville (ii), Un coin dans la serre (A corner in the conservatory), in L’Univers Illustré 25 (21 January 1882), p. 45 (Ill. 2063

) – cf. the picture in the novel with the caption: “Nan’s companion led her to a raised bench, from which she could see very well” (between pp. 34 and 35) (Ill. 2070

), and William Overend, L´été (Summer) – the latter is of the same model, also with a poem by Price, in L’Univers Illustré 25 (22 July 1882), p. 460 (Ill. 2064

9. The edition published in 1881 by Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square in New York, contains 33 illustrations by various artists. The three illustrations Van Gogh refers to are a figure of a woman (in the novel the character Nan Beresford), probably signed ‘RL’ and possibly by Richard Principal Leitch, “Took out her handkerchief and waved it twice” (Ill. 2071

), a walk in the snow by Harry Furniss, “He found that Nan was already some way ahead” (Ill. 2072

) and the unsigned engraving of the Beresford family; in the room is a ‘fireplace, where there was no fire’, with the caption: “He went and got an opera-glass, and returned to the window” (Ill. 2073

). Illustrations opposite pp. 16, 74, 22 (quotation on p. 24).

10. Edouard Frère, Snowballing, in The Illustrated London News 68 (10 February 1876), pp. 176-177. Ill. 857

. A thematically related print by Frère was also published under the title Le chemin de l’école – Going to school, engraved by Alphonse Masson, 1861. Ill. 2065

11. Benjamin Vautier (The Elder), Eine Verhaftung. Gemälde von Benjamin Vautier (An arrest. Painting by Benjamin Vautier), in Illustrirte Zeitung 77 (2 July 1881), pp. 8-9. Ill. 1399

12. Van Gogh must refer to Walker’s The old gate

or The harbour of refuge

from The Graphic: see letter 304, nn. 15 and 16.