1. In letter 496 Vincent expressed the hope that Theo would continue to watch out for the publication of ‘new months’ in this series. Since he had meanwhile received the months of February, March and April from ‘Les mois rustiques’, and was subsequently to get September, October and November, it is safe to assume that by the ‘new’ Lhermittes he meant the prints for the months of July and August (the month of June was not published).

The months of July and August are Léon Augustin Lhermitte, Les fraises des bois (Wild strawberries), engraved by Charles Baude (Ill. 2152

), and La soir dans la rivière (Evening on the river), engraved by Clément Edouard Bellenger (Ill. 2153

), in Le Monde Illustré. 29 (1 August 1885), Supplement to no. 1479 and Le Monde Illustré 29 (29 August 1885), Supplement to no. 1483.

2. Félix Bracquemond discusses Nicolas Poussin in the chapter ‘Décoration, décorateur’ in Du dessin et de la couleur, and examines the conflict between colour and line. He attaches a great deal of value to the line (drawing) and believes that colour plays a subordinate role. He insists that artists should draw from nature and then work these studies out in colour in the studio from memory and imagination, rather than copying the colours of nature (see Bracquemond 1885, pp. 203-209).

3. They were Andreas Pauwels, who was priest in Nuenen from 1880 to 1889, and W. Beekmans, chaplain from 1882 to 1890. See De Brouwer 1984, p. 96.

On 8 September 1885 Theo wrote about this matter to his mother: ‘What bad luck for Vincent, he wrote to me about it too, is there anything those priests don’t interfere in? If only he could find something else suitable soon! All the painters I show his work to say that there’s a great deal in it and he must just keep going’ (FR b902).

4. The burgomaster of Nuenen was Johannes van Hombergh (RHC, Administratief Archief Nuenen). Van Gogh wrote a note to Van Hombergh in September 1887 (letter 573).

5. This ‘girl’ was the unmarried Gordina de Groot, who modelled for Van Gogh several times.

6. It is possible that Van Gogh wrote ‘kan’ (can) rather than ‘kon’ (could).

7. See for Van Rappard’s Workers at the Ruimzicht brickyard : letters 528 and 529.

8. Van Rappard returned to Drenthe not only in 1885, but in 1886 too. See Egbert Brink, ‘Ridder in het armenhuis. Anthon van Rappard in Drenthe’, Waardeel. Drents Historisch Tijdschrift 25-1 (2005), pp. 23-28, esp. 27.

9. Van Gogh knew of the history painter Paul Marc Joseph Chenavard through Charles Blanc, who devoted a chapter to him in Les artistes de mon temps. Blanc believed that, unlike most contemporary French artists, Chenavard had not fallen prey to decadence and had made an extensive study of the old masters. According to Blanc they should show modern art the way (see Blanc 1876, pp. 191-198 and cf. the quotation from Blanc in letter 449).