1. This was letter 838.

2. Evening (after Millet) (F 647 /JH 1834 ).

3. For the series The four times of the day , engraved by Adrien Lavieille after Millet, see letter 37, n. 16. Van Gogh painted Evening, referred to here, after the fourth print in the series, The evening. His painted copies of the other three prints (Leaving for the fields, The end of the day and The afternoon nap) are The end of the day (after Millet) (F 649 / JH 1835 ), Morning: going out to work (after Millet) (F 684 / JH 1880 ) and Noon: rest (after Millet) (F 686 / JH 1881 ).

4. For the series The labours of the field , consisting of ten prints on a single sheet, engraved by Adrien Lavieille, see letter 156, n. 1. Van Gogh painted copies of all ten; see letter 805, n. 6.

5. The lunatic asylum of Montevergues was situated in the municipality of Montfavet, about five km to the east of Avignon.

6. Van Gogh had drawn and painted from plaster casts in Paris. See cat. Amsterdam 2001, pp. 138-176, 187-207, and cat. Amsterdam 2011. See also letter 808, in which Van Gogh wrote about painted ‘Greek studies’.

7. The Spaniards Fortuny, José Jiménez Aranda and Tapiró all worked for a time in Rome; this might be why Van Gogh connects them with the Italians.

8. Van Gogh’s furniture from the Yellow House was in storage at the Ginoux’s Café de la Gare.

9. For Alfred Alexandre Delauney’s etching after Millet’s Winter: The plain of Chailly , see letter 157, n. 25. Van Gogh made a painting after it, namely Snow-covered field with a plough and harrow (after Millet) (F 632 / JH 1882 ).

10. Van Gogh had a photograph of Millet’s drawing The first steps (see letter 815, n. 14), which he used as an example for his painting The first steps (after Millet) (F 668 / JH 1883 ).

11. Van Gogh was probably thinking of Vernier’s etching after Millet’s The angelus (see letter 785, n. 9) and Lerat’s etching after Millet’s Sower (see letter 686, n. 6).

12. Van Gogh had seen the small panel The death and assumption of the Virgin at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier; at the time it was still attributed to Giotto. See letter 726, n. 12. It is possible that he also knew Giotto’s Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata (a retable with four scenes from the life of Saint Francis) in the Louvre.

13. For Daumier, The four ages of the drinker , see letter 267, n. 33. Van Gogh made a painting after it in February 1890: Men drinking (after Daumier) (F 667 / JH 1884 ).

14. ‘Penitentiary’ refers to the four wood engravings American sketches (‘American prison life’) by Félix Régamey; see letter 302, n. 10.

a. Read: ‘trouver’.

15. Various depictions of readers by Meissonier are known; see letter 152, n. 13.

16. La halte (also called The halt, Halt at an inn and Travellers halting), 1863 (London, The Wallace Collection). Ill. 247 . Goupil published a coloured photogravure after the panel, with the title Van Gogh gives here.