1. Frans Francken ii, The Crucifixion (Golgotha), 1603. Ill. 855 . The canvas was fixed in a wooden Holy Cross altar in the sixteenth-century Church of St Andrew, which is situated in a side street off Nationalestraat in the centre of Antwerp. See Goovaerts 1978, pp. 48, 78-79.

2. Charles Michel Marie Verlat, The descent from the Cross Ill. 1403 . It hangs several metres above the choir stalls in the chancel of St Andrew’s. Van Gogh mistook the painting by his future teacher at the Academy for a seventeenth-century work.

3. The sixteenth-century Maris Stella window, which was destroyed in 1889 as a result of an explosion elsewhere in the city. There is a replica on the north side of the church, above the Lady Chapel. Ill. 2172 . See Goovaerts 1978, p. 42 and Hammacher 1982, facing p. 128, no. 91.

4. Jan Verhas, Donkey rides on Heist beach, 1884. Ill. 442 .

5. Edgard Farasyn, The old fish market in Antwerp in 1882. Ill. 831 .

6. Emile Wauters, Cairo at the Kasr-el-Nil Bridge, 1881. Ill. 446 . Evidently the Musée Moderne displayed its latest acquisitions together.

7. On 12 January 1886 Theo wrote to his mother: ‘I’ve had a couple of letters from Vincent. He’s working hard and seems to be going to concentrate on painting portraits; in time he should be able to earn a bit from that. I hope he won’t suffer too much from the cold, for it must really be wintry there, as it is here’ (FR b905).

8. Woman with a scarlet bow in her hair (F 207 / JH 979 ).

9. Van Gogh is probably referring here to a painted portrait; most likely the same portrait – which has not survived – that he mentioned in letter 550.

10. Peter Paul Rubens, Virgin with a parrot, c. 1614. Ill. 1304 . The works of art Van Gogh refers to here are all in Antwerp museums.

11. Peter Paul Rubens, Christ on the straw, c. 1618. Ill. 1297 .

12. He must mean Rubens’s Jan Gaspar Gevartius, c. 1628. Ill. 1607 .

13. See for this supposed work by Rembrandt letter 547, n. 20.

14. Anthony van Dyck, The descent from the Cross, c. 1629. Ill. 800 .

15. See for Self-portrait by Ingres and Man with a hat by David: letter 544, nn. 29 and 30.

16. Taken from the preface to Edmond de Goncourt’s Chérie, where the same word is emphasized: ‘Well! when you have done that … it will be really difficult not to be someone in the future’ (Eh bien! quand on a fait cela... c’est vraiment difficile de n’être pas quelqu’un dans l’avenir). Goncourt 1884, p. xvi. Van Gogh referred to this preface in letter 550.

17. The second volume of L’art du dix-huitième siècle by the De Goncourts, which Van Gogh had asked for in letter 545.

18. In December 1885-January 1886 the Parisian art gallery Georges Petit staged a retrospective of the work of Nicolas François Octave Tassaert with 122 paintings. It was widely reviewed in the press. See Bernard Prost, Octave Tassaert. Notice sur sa vie et catalogue de son oeuvre. Paris 1886, p. xx.

19. During his lifetime Jean Baptiste Greuze enjoyed a reputation as a genre and portrait painter. His oeuvre reveals influences of Boucher, Van Dyck, Gerard Dou, David and others. Greuze’s life and work are discussed in L’art du dix-huitième siècle by the De Goncourts (see Goncourt 1881-1914, vol. 2, pp. 3-101). Theo had just sent Vincent this book.

20. See for Jean Léon Gérôme’s The prisoner letter 418, n. 1; ‘le camp russe’ (The Russian camp) is Récréation au camp (Souvenir de Moldavie, 1854), 1855 (private collection). See Ackerman 1986, pp. 198-199, cat. no. 66. It was no. 645 in the series ‘Photographie (Musée Goupil et Cie)’ as Récréation du camp (Recreation in a camp, Memory of Moldavia, 1854) (Bordeaux, Musée Goupil). Ill. 129 . See for The Syrian shepherd letter 507, n. 7.

21. Verlat was appointed director of the Antwerp Academy in October 1885.

22. Jef Lambeaux, The kiss, 1881. Ill. 1022 . The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten had acquired this bronze statue in 1882.

23. This is the first time the idea of going to Paris is mentioned; cf. also letter 552.