Updates (Version October 2021)

Letters

Letter 66, n. 1 changed to:
George Eliot’s novel Felix Holt, the radical (1866) tells the love story of Felix Holt and Esther Lyon, which ends in their marriage. It ‘is a study in the Radicalism of the time of the Reform Bill, contrasting the ideal radicalism of Felix Holt, who, with talent which might command material success, prefers to spend himself in social service, and the political radicalism of the good business man, Harold Transome, who breaks away from the Tory traditions of his family’. See I.G. Mudge and M.E. Sears, A George Eliot dictionary. The characters and scenes of the novels, stories and poems alphabetically arranged. London 1924, p. xxii. Van Gogh’s parents also read the book (FR b954, b2234).

Letter 114, n. 8, after ‘Godsdienstoefening in eene dorpskerk (Divine service in a village church) by Adolf Carel Nunnink, in Kunstkronijk 3 (1862), NS, no. 15’:
Also included in a scrapbook from the estate (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, t*1487, 36). Ill. 1818.

Letter 133, note 2, added at the end of the note:
Vincent’s second poetry album for Theo (1875, see letter 29, n. 2) also contains seven fragments from Carlyle’s works, one of them (the sixth quotation) from Carlyle’s The French Revolution. However, when Van Gogh copied these fragments in English, he most probably copied them from Taine’s Histoire de la littérature anglaise, vol. 5, Les contemporains. In fact, Van Gogh’s choice (cuts and ellipses) coincides with Taine’s choice in all fragments, quoted in English in Taine’s footnotes. See Guzzoni 2020, p. 214 (n. 18), and Pabst 1988, p. 25.

Letter 135, note 18:
‘Leidsestraat 28’ changed to ‘Keizersgracht 453’.

Letter 151, n. 2 changed to:
Charbonnage de Marcasse/Saint-Antoine (Escouffiaux no. 7) d’Hornu-Petit-Wasmes. For an illustration of this mine, see Eeckaut 1990, ‘Annexes’, p. 16. This was the second time that Van Gogh went down a mine, as indicated by ‘700 metres deep this time’ later on in the letter. He had written in January to his father about his first descent in a mine, 635 metres deep; see letter 150, n. 2.

Letter 178, translation:
‘those like you and I’ changed to ‘those like you and me’.

Letter 193, note added:
25. Taken from the poem ‘Onvermoeid’ (Tireless) by P.A. de Génestet: see letter 179, n. 4.

Letter 193, n. 26:
This utterance is quoted again in letter 458, where the word ‘énergique’ has been added.

Letter 234, n. 16:
‘Ernest Philippe Boetzel (1830-c. 1920)’ changed to ‘Ernest Philippe Boetzel (1830-1913)’

Letter 286, n. 3 changed to:
These are studies like ‘Worn out’ (F 997 / JH 267) and (the compositionally different) Sorrowful old man (F 998 / JH 269). It is clear from letter 287, however, that Van Gogh worked with two different models, one of them Adrianus Zuyderland, and only the study of him survived: Study for ‘Worn out’ (F - / JH -), see Meedendorp 2021.

Letter 287, n. 6 changed to:
Two drawings connected to the lithograph ‘At eternity’s gate’ (F 1662 / JH 268) are known: ‘Worn out’ (F 997 / JH 267), which was the immediate model for the lithograph, and Study for ‘Worn out’ (F - / JH -). The study with the other model remains unknown, see also letter 286, n. 3. The compositionally different Sorrowful old man (F 998 / JH 269) was probably made somewhat later, see Otterlo 2007, pp. 172-4.

Letter 292, translation:
‘Young corn’ changed to ‘Young wheat’.

Letter 325, n. 4, added:
Van Gogh mentions Leech, Cruikshank and Barnard in sequence. This suggests that he had in mind the illustrators of Dickens’s work; see Guzzoni 2020, p. 213, n. 15. Van Gogh’s conclusive comment ‘Leech, though, is strong with street urchins’ probably refers to the illustrations that Leech created for the first edition of The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, which comprises four striking scenes with boys (London 1848, pp. 48, 68, 130, 145).

Letter 387, n. 3 changed to:
Tralbaut thought that it was the cemetery of the village of Pesse, to the north of the Dutch Reformed Church (Tralbaut 1959); this was accepted by later researchers, in part on the basis of the church spire. Metselaar, on the other hand, believed that it was the churchyard in Hollandscheveld, a hamlet near Hoogeveen. See Metselaar 2000, and (also for the debate) Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 119-122. New research has revealed that it was indeed the cemetery of Pesse, see Annemiek Rens et al., ‘In de Drentse voetsporen van Van Gogh’, Waardeel. Drents historisch tijdschrift, 40-4 (2020), pp. 22-31.

Letter 511, n. 2, added:
‘Joseph van der Harten (1852-1925)’ changed to ‘Johannes Renier Joseph van der Harten (1852-1925)’
Cf. Jack van Hoek, ‘Over een kerkuil en een kalong’, Drijehornickels 29-3 (2020), pp. 33-36.

Letter 547, n. 2:
‘Head of a prostitute (F 206 / JH 972)’ changed to ‘Head of a woman’ (F 206 / JH 972). Also in letter 550 n4.

Letter 550, n. 3:
‘Portrait of a prostitute (F 207a / JH 1204)’ changed to ‘Portrait of a woman (F 207a / JH 1204)’.

Letter 583, n. 8:
‘We do not know which of the two was an amateur artist’ changed to ‘The one who visited Van Gogh must have been Giraud.’

Letter 594, n. 2, changed to:
… the sizes of the paintings he had made up to this point are 25 (F 555 / JH 1380 and F 403 / JH 1378), 20 (F 394 / JH 1379 ) and 15 (F 553 / JH 1387 and F 556 / JH 1383), and F405 is half the size of a no. 30 canvas. Van Gogh wasn’t always accurate when it came to giving canvas sizes; in letters 611 and 620 he called a 25 ‘figure’ canvas a size 30. ‘The pink peach trees’ is the painting Pink peach trees (‘Souvenir de Mauve’) (F 394 / JH 1379).

Letter 595, n. 5:
‘Pink peach trees (F 404 / JH 1391)’ changed to ‘The pink peach tree (F 404 / JH 1391)’

Letter 622, Sketches:
‘bordé’ changed to ‘bordée’.

Letter 637, n. 7:
‘Olive trees, Montmajour (F - / JH add. 3)’ changed to Trees, Montmajour (F - / JH add. 3)’. Also in letters 638, n. 3, 639, n. 1, and 640, n. 15.

Letter 649, n. 7, added:
The print (a heliogravure) is in the Van Gogh estate (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2203.

Letter 659, n. 6, added:
A similar composition with thistles in the foreground appears in a colour illustration by Frédéric Montenard, in Daudet’s Tartarin sur les Alpes (Calman Lévy, Paris 1885, p. 321). The caption of the illustration may also have inspired Van Gogh: ‘That lovely Tarascon road, all white and dry with dust’ (Cette belle route tarasconnaise, toute blanche et cracquante de poussière). See Guzzoni 2020, pp. 125-127.

Letter 716, Location:
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, inv. no. b9122V2020.

Letter 732, n. 5 changed to:
In letter 735 Van Gogh reports that this doctor came from Paris, but it is not known to whom he is referring. In any case, it is certain that Albert Delon had studied at the medical university in Paris (below his contributions to L’Homme de Bronze is written ‘ancien interne des hospices de Paris’, the honorary title of graduates of L’Internat des Hôpitaux de Paris). He treated Van Gogh in February 1889. See letter 747, n. 1. Dr Auriol, who had also been trained in Paris, also worked at the hospital as a surgeon (ACA).

Letter 767, n. 1:
‘Sunflowers in a vase (F 458 / JH 1667)’ changed to ‘Sunflowers in a vase (F 457 / JH 1666)’.
‘F 457 / JH 1666’ changed to ‘F 458 / JH 1667’.

Letter 780, n. 1 changed to:
Olive trees (F 715 / JH 1759). See exhib. cat. Dallas 2021, pp. 85, 90 (n. 2).

Letter 782, n. 7 changed to:
This was Olive trees with the Alpilles in the background (F 712 / JH 1740), which Van Gogh later mentions with F 612 (see letter 805).

Letter 783, n. 2, last paragraph changed to:
The twelfth canvas could be Olive trees (F 715 / JH 1759) or Green wheatfield with rising sun (F 720 / JH 1728).

Letter 789, n. 13 changed to:
This was presumably Olive trees (F 714 / JH 1858), measuring 51.1 x 65.4 cm (no. 15 canvas). Specifying that the first two works are ‘no. 30 canvases’ implies that the others are smaller, so he cannot be referring to the three olive groves on no. 30 canvases (F 585, F 712 and F 715).

Letter 804, n. 9 changed to:
Loti gives a detailed description of the boudoir of the Romanian queen. Commenting on Delacroix’s painting, Loti said: ‘When she was seated at her work, I could see, from the spot she had indicated to me on the first day, and which it was my habit to resume, her face and her veil standing out in front of a large, superb canvas by Delacroix: the entombment of Christ.’ (Lorsqu’elle était assise à travailler, de la place qu’elle m’avait indiquée le premier jour et que j’avais coutume de reprendre, je voyais son visage et son voile se détacher en avant d’une grande et superbe toile de Delacroix: la mise au tombeau du Christ.) This was in fact a copy of Delacroix’s The lamentation, 1844 (Saint-Denis du Saint-Sacrement, Paris). Van Gogh must have misidentified this painting as the Pietà he was interested in. See Johnson 1981-1989, vol. 5, p. 80, n. 1.

Letter 805, n. 23 changed to:
This was either Olive trees (F 715 / JH 1759) or Olive grove (F 585 / JH 1758). Whichever painting remained was included in the next consignment, which also contained an olive grove (see letter 806). See exhib. cat. Dallas 2021, pp. 88, 91 (n. 17).

Letter 806, n. 8 changed to:
Olive trees (F 715 / JH 1759) or Olive grove (F 585 / JH 1758). See letter 805, n. 23.

Letter 806, note added:
21. Van Gogh’s description of the trees and the soil corresponds quite closely with the ones in Olive grove (F 711 / JH 1791). That must have been the painting he was working on, and the smaller, more sketchy Olive grove (F 709 / JH 1760) probably shortly preceded it. See exhib. cat. Dallas 2021, pp. 109, 115.

Letter 822, n. 16 changed to:
A little later in the letter Van Gogh says that he has five no. 30 canvases of olive groves. These were Olive trees (F 710 / JH 1856), Olive grove (F 707 / JH 1857), Olive trees (F 708 / JH 1855), Olive grove (F 586 / JH 1854) and Women picking olives (F 654 / JH 1868). See exhib. cat. Dallas 2021, p. 132 (n 8).

Letter 823, n. 6 changed to:
These five no. 30 canvases of olive groves are Olive trees (F 710 / JH 1856), Olive grove (F 707 / JH 1857), Olive trees (F 708 / JH 1855), Olive grove (F 586 / JH 1854) and Women picking olives (F 654 / JH 1868). See exhib. cat. Dallas 2021, p. 132 (n. 8).

Letter 824, n. 7 changed to:
It is unclear which painting this refers to. Orchard in blossom at the foot of the Alpilles (F 723 / JH 1722), the only work with blossoming orchards from Saint-Rémy, dates from January-February 1890. It is unlikely that Van Gogh is referring to an olive grove, as Pickvance assumed in exh. cat. New York 1986 (p. 301), since in that case Van Gogh would have written ‘verger d’oliviers’. He could not be referring to the studies of blossoming orchards made in Arles in 1888, because he had already sent them to Theo (see letter 606). He had also sent the paintings of blossoming orchards made in Arles in 1889 (see letters 789 and 805).

Letter 827, n. 12, first sentence changed to:
The twelve large canvases included the five paintings mentioned in letter 823 – Olive trees (F 710 / JH 1856), Olive grove (F 707 / JH 1857), Olive trees (F 708 / JH 1855), Olive grove (F 586 / JH 1854) and Women picking olives (F 654 / JH 1868).

Letter 834, n. 13:
‘Olive pickers (F 587 / JH 1853)’ changed to ‘Olive grove with two olive pickers (F 587 / JH 1853)’.

Letter 853, Location:
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum (gift of Mr. and Mrs. Cheung Chung Kiu), inv. no. b9119 S/2019

Letter 879, n. 7:
‘buttercups’ changed to ‘turban buttercups’.

Letter 879, n. 15 changed to:
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Inter Artes et Naturam (Between art and nature), 1890 (Musée de Rouen). Ill. 316. A smaller version is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Van Gogh had seen the large painting at the exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. See exhib. cat. Paris 1890-4, p. xxii, no. 718, and RM21. Van Gogh made the letter sketch (F - / JH -) from memory.

Letter 889, n. 8:
Wild flowers in a vase (F 763 / JH 2030): ‘oil on canvas’ changed to ‘oil on torchon’

Letter 894, n. 9:
Camille Corot, Souvenir of Nemi. Rocks and shrubs: ‘1844-1845’ changed to ‘1844’.

Letter RM16:
‘[x] [la nuit étoilée [?]]’ changed to ‘5 [la nuit étoilée [?]]’.

Letter RM16, translation:
‘[x] [the starry night [?]]’ changed to ‘5 [the starry night [?]]’.

Letter RM20, n. 9 changed to:
These were the eight paintings that Van Gogh had made in Saint-Rémy in May 1890 after his last period of illness: Irises in a vase, (F 678 / JH 1977), Irises in a vase (F 680 / JH 1978), Roses in a vase (F 681 / JH 1976), Roses in a vase (F 682 / JH 1979), The garden of the asylum with dandelions and tree-trunks (F 676 / JH 1970), Meadow in the garden of the asylum (F 672 / JH 1975) and Road with a cypress and star (F 683 / JH 1982).

Letter RM21, n.4 changed to:
Here Van Gogh is probably thinking of Olive trees (F 715 / JH 1759) and Olive grove (F 585 / JH 1758), see letter 805, n. 23.

Letter RM23, note added:
5. Van Gogh's paintings of olive trees that were at Theo's, see letters 823, 834, and 863.

Letter RM25, Additional:
‘that horrible day’ changed to ‘the day of the accident’.

Biographical & historical context

n. 9 changed to:
FR b980, Mrs Van Gogh to Theo, 7 June 1878.

Correspondents

4.2 Lost correspondence:
Tersteeg’s son Johan (Johan Tersteeg, 1873-1953).

Credit lines

Still life with coffee pot (F 410 / JH 1426): Lausanne, Collection Goulandris’ changed to ‘Athens, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation’

Bibliography

Exhib. cat. Dallas 2021
Van Gogh and the olive groves. Nienke Bakker, Nicole R. Myers et al. Exhib. cat. Dallas (Dallas Museum of Art), Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum), 2021-2022.

Guzzoni 2020
Mariella Guzzoni, Vincent’s books: Van Gogh and the writers who inspired him. London 2020.

Meedendorp et al. 2021
Teio Meedendorp, ‘Study for ‘Worn out’: a newly discovered Van Gogh drawing’, in The Burlington Magazine 163 (2021), pp. 916-923.

Images

Letter 649, n. 7:
New image of Eugène Gaujean (after Rembrandt), Christ at the column.

Letter 716:
New images of the letter (recto and verso).

Letter 806, n. 21:
Image of Olive grove (F 711 / JH 1791).

Letter 822, n. 16:
New image of Women picking olives (F 654 / JH 1868).

Letter 879, n. 15:
Image of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Inter Artes et Naturam (Between art and nature), 1890 (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen).

Functionality

For all Van Gogh works described in https://vangoghworldwide.org/, we provide a link to the relevant information on that site with the images.

Updates (Version January 2020)

Letters

Letter 31, n. 4:
‘Gemeentemuseum’ changed to: Kunstmuseum
Also in letter 37, n. 15, letter 171, n. 21, letter 194, n. 5, letter 290, n. 6, letter 361, n. 22, letter 416, n. 4, letter 502, n. 17, and letter 510, n. 5.

Letter 35, n. 7, added:
This print is also to be found in Theo's scrapbook (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, t*1488, 141).

Letter 43, location:
Private collection

Letter 76, n. 8 changed to:
William Port Stokes and Lydia Blyth had a son named William Port Stokes, born in October 1855, and baptized 15 November 1855. He was aged 21 rather than 23, as Vincent assumed.

Letter 76, n. 8:
‘William Port Stokes (c. 1832-1890)’ changed to: ‘William Port Stokes (1833-1890)’ ‘Lydia Ann Stokes-Blyth (before 1835-1878)’ changed to: ‘Lydia Ann Stokes-Blyth (1834-1878)’

Letter 84, n. 9 changed to: Three photographs of paintings by Paul Delaroche, Good Friday, Mater Dolorosa and Gethsemane; see letter 54, n. 14.

Letter 151, n. 5: ‘Coal mine in the Borinage (F 1040 / JH 100)’ changed to: ‘Cokes factory in the Borinage (F 1040 / JH 100)’

Letter 168, n. 2 and 3:
‘Utrecht, Centraal Museum’ changed to: ‘Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum’

Letter 235, n. 21 changed to: In the estate there are three prints by George Henry Boughton: Verregnet, Genrebild aus der Bretagne (Rain-soaked, genre scene from Brittany) from Über Land und Meer (t*822); The poisoned cup from The Graphic 9 (20 June 1874), p. 600 (t*494); and an untitled engraving (t*1487), whose source is unknown.

Letter 273, n. 14:
‘Horace Harral (fl. 1844-1891)’ changed to: ‘Horace Harral (1817-1905)’

Letter 275, n. 51: They appeared in L’Univers Illustré 24 (18 June 1881)’ changed to: ‘They appeared in L’Univers Illustré 24 (18 June 1881), p. 388 (t*449) and 24 (10 September 1881), p. 628 (t*216)’

Letter 293, n. 13:
‘Godefroy Durand (1832-1920)’ changed to: Godefroy Durand (1832-1896)’

Letter 359, n. 23:
‘Alfred William Hunt (1830-1896)’ changed to: ‘Alfred Hunt (active 1860-1884)’

Letter 398, n. 10: Man burning weeds changed to: Peasant burning weeds

Letter 405, n. 3: ‘The figure he describes is probably the third figure from the left, standing against a rock’ changed to: ‘The figure he describes is probably the man with the helmet and sharp profile, sitting on a rock’

Letter 574, n. 15: ‘he suspected that one of her cousins, Anthonius van Rooij or Francis van Rooij, was the father’ changed to: ‘he suspected that one of her cousins was the father’

Letter 578, n. 3:
‘In the spring of 1887, following his stay with the brothers in rue Lepic (see n. 6 below), the Scottish art dealer Alexander Reid, a friend of Theo and Vincent in Paris’ changed to: ‘In the spring of 1887, the Scottish art dealer Alexander Reid, a friend of Theo and Vincent in Paris’

Letter 578, n. 6 changed to:
The Van Gogh brothers befriended Reid in February 1887. See Fowle 2010, p. 31, and cf. also n. 3 above.

Letter 580, n. 10 changed to:
It is not known which new study this was. Previously it was thought to be Bowl of potatoes (F 386 / JH 1365), but that painting dates from early 1889; see Van Tilborgh et al. 2012, pp. 112, 119.

Letter 583, n 4: ‘a study, possibly Bowl of Potatoes (F 386 / JH 1365) (see letter 580)’ changed to: ‘an unidentified study (see letter 580)’. Also in letter 585 n.4, and letter 606, n. 4.

Letter 618, location:
Private collection

Letter 635, translation: ‘fire in our bellies’ changed to: ‘fire in our bones’

Letter 635, note added: 9. Jer. 20:9.

Letter 679, n. 1:
‘The letter to Gauguin’ changed to: ‘The letter from Gauguin’

Letter 765, n. 32 changed to:
Van Gogh no doubt found Sunflowers in a vase (F 455 / JH 1668) and F 457 / JH 1666 ‘worthy of being put on stretching frames’ (l. 158). The first two versions, F 456 / JH 1561 and F 454 / JH 1562, were indeed in the consignment but cannot be the paintings in question because they were already framed with strips of wood and thus already on stretching frames (see letter 776). Sunflowers in a vase (F 458 / JH 1667) must have been sent on a stretching frame too; Van Gogh had enlarged the composition by adding a strip of wood to the canvas (see Hendriks et al. 2019). This means that the painting could not be taken off the stretching frame anymore. The consignment probably also included F 453 / JH 1559 and F 459 / JH 1560; see letter 774, n. 7.

Letter 784, n. 1 changed to:
Vincent’s reply to his mother’s letter is letter 788. Mrs van Gogh had addressed her letter ‘to the Hospital at Arles’, as she said in a letter she wrote to Theo and Jo on 29 April 1889: ‘I hope he received it and am greatly longing to hear something from him. I think of him a lot and hope so much that it may lead to his recovery’ (FR b2913).

Letter 805, n. 14 changed to:
Self-portrait (F 528 / JH 1780). See Van Tilborgh et al. 2020.

Letter 830, translation:
‘he no longer sells anything but yours’ changed to: ‘he sells as few by others as by you’

Letter 851, location:
Private collection

Letter 853, location:
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b9119 S/2019

Letter 877, n.3, added:
The sketch shows one book; Van Gogh would add another one in the painting.

Letter 888:
Notes 5 and 6 have been reversed.

Letter 894:
Notes 2 and 3 have been reversed.

Images

Letter 398, n. 10:
New image and location of Van Gogh, Peasant burning weeds (F 20 / JH 417).

Letter 671, n. 3:
New image of Van Gogh, Zinnias in a majolica jug (F 592 / JH 1568).

Letter 798, n. 4:
New image of Van Gogh, Field with a ploughman (F 625 / JH 1768).

Letter 805, n. 14:
Image of Van Gogh, Self-Portrait (F 528 / JH 1780).

Letter 853:
New images of the letter (recto and verso).

Chronology

1887
February
Befriends the art dealer Alexander Reid.

Bibliography

Fowle 2010
Frances Fowle, Van Gogh's Twin: The Scottish Art Dealer Alexander Reid, Edinburgh 2010.

Van Tilborgh et al. 2012
Louis van Tilborgh, Teio Meedendorp, Ella Hendriks, Don H. Johnson, C. Richard Johnson Jr and Robert G. Erdmann, ‘Weave matching and dating of Van Gogh’s paintings: an interdisciplinary approach’, in The Burlington Magazine 154 (2012), pp. 112-122.

Hendriks et al. 2019
Ella Hendriks, Marije Vellekoop et al., Van Gogh’s Sunflowers Illuminated : Art meets Science, Van Gogh Museum Studies, Vol. 1. Amsterdam 2019.

Van Tilborgh et al. 2020
Louis van Tilborgh, Teio Meedendorp and Kathrin Pilz, ‘Van Gogh as mentally ill: his contested Oslo self-portrait’, The Burlington Magazine 162 (2020), pp. 88-101.

XML source files

The XML source files for the edition now explicitly identify the main language of the letter.

Updates (Version July 2018)

Letters

Letter 325, location:
Private Collection

Letter 547, n. 2:
Head of an old man changed to: Portrait of an old man
Also in letter 552, n. 9, letter 553, n. 2, letter 565, n. 1.

Letter 547, n. 3:
Woman with her hair loose changed to: Head of a prostitute

Letter 550, n. 3:
Portrait of a Woman changed to: Portrait of a prostitute

Letter 550, n. 4:
Woman with her hair loose changed to: Head of a prostitute

Letter 569, n. 7:
Self-portrait as an artist changed to: Self-portrait as a painter

Letter 572, n. 6:
Couples in a Montmartre garden changed to: Garden with courting couples: square Saint-Pierre

Letter 590, n. 5:
Almond tree in blossom changed to: Peach tree in blossom
Also in letter 591, n. 6, letter 600, n. 7, letter 602, n. 11, letter 606, n. 4.

Letter 592, n. 17:
Couples in a Montmartre garden changed to: Garden with courting couples: square Saint-Pierre

Letters 614, n. 2:
‘Haystacks’ changed to: ‘Wheat stacks’
Also in letter 623, n. 10, letter 624, n. 3 and n. 4, letter 625, n. 13, letter 629, n. 3 and n. 12, letter 633, n. 5, letter 635, n. 5, letter 637, n. 6, letter 640, n. 16, letter 643, n. 1, letter 654, n. 1, letter 660, n. 1 and n. 17, letter 858, n. 9.

Letter 624, translation:
‘Haystacks’ changed to: ‘Wheat stacks’
Also in letters 625, 629, 635.

Letter 626, n. 15:
Self-portrait as an artist changed to: Self-portrait as a painter

Letter 714
‘Iceland fishermen’ changed to: ‘Icelandic fishermen’

Letter 740, location:
Private Collection

Letter 745, n. 18:
The ‘Chronique locale’ in Le Forum Républicain of Sunday, 30 December 1888 reported that in the night of 23 December Van Gogh had offered his severed ear to ‘a certain Rachel’ (la nommée Rachel) at ‘brothel No. 1’ (maison de tolérance No. 1) in rue du Bout d’Arles. The brothel was on the corner of rue des Glacières and rue du Bout d'Arles. Police officer Alphonse Robert later recalled that the girl worked under the name of Gaby (Doiteau and Leroy 1939, p. 6). The identity of the prostitute Rachel/Gaby remains a mystery. For an interpretation see Murphy 2016, pp. 66-69, 217-227.

Letter 771, n. 1:
‘Chinese asters and gladioli in a vase’ changed to: ‘Vase with Chinese asters and gladioli’

Letter 853, n. 15:
‘Iceland fishermen’ changed to: ‘Icelandic fishermen’

Letter 871, location:
Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago

Images

Letter 258, n. 5:
New image of Van Gogh, Women mending nets in the dunes (F 7 / JH 178).

Letter 259, n. 1:
New image of Van Gogh, View of the sea at Scheveningen (F 4 / JH 187).

Letter 428, n. 5:
New image of Van Gogh, Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (F 25 / JH 521).

Letter 583, n. 4:
New image of Van Gogh, Basket of oranges (F 395 / JH 1363).

Letter 590, n. 5:
New image of Van Gogh, Peach tree in blossom (F 557 / JH 1397).

Letter 607, n. 2:
New image of Van Gogh, Orchard (F 511 / JH 1386).

XML source files

The XML source files for this edition are now available. They can be used under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Updates (Version April 2017)

Letters

Letter 99, n. 4:
added after ‘This song version was published earlier as a poem’: ‘see for instance Daily Alta California and San Francisco Times, 27 October 1872’

Letter 143, n. 11 changed to:
Thomas a Kempis, L’Imitation de Jésus-Christ, book I, chapter 25, 2. Van Gogh cited the title of this book in letter 129, see letter 129, n. 24.

Letter 148, n. 25 changed to:
The first line of this quotation seems to have been taken from Emmanuel Soudan, Petite description géographique du globe, au point de vue belge, Ghent 1854, p. 28. Most of the fragment was copied almost literally from Adolphe Siret, Récits historiques Belges, Brussels 1855, pp. 217-218. See Bart Moens, ‘Van Gogh in Brussels: a little-known but decisive stage in his early development as an artist’. In exhib. cat. Mons 2015, p. 117, n. 11 and 12. It was also cited in A. Anthelme Fritz, Esquisse d’une nouvelle Géographie de la Belgique..., Deuxième édition, Brussels 1860, pp. 45, 49-50; and in A. Anthelme Fritz, La Belgique physique, politique, industrielle et commerciale..., Brussels 1864, pp. 45, 49-50. With thanks to Dominique Guillet.

Letter 153, n. 4, added at the end of the note:
The family lived at Rue de l’Activité (Werkzaamheidstraat) 24, Sint-Lambrechts Woluwe (SAB, municipal register, 1876 - U fol. 47).

Letter 157, n. 23 changed to:
Van Gogh’s mention of Reapers binding sheaves probably refers to a reproduction of Jean-François Millet’s pastel Buckwheat harvest, 1868-70 (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). Ill. 3112. This was published as an engraving in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts of 1 May 1875, p. 438. See exhib. cat. Boston 1984, p. 210, cat. no. 142.

Letter 162, n. 12 changed to:
This postscript seems to be a reaction to a remark made by Theo, who had become acquainted with Victor Horta through a colleague at Goupil’s. The colleague was probably Tobias Schmidt, whom Vincent had visited the previous October (letter 159). Horta, who later gained...

Letter 211. n. 12 changed to:
In the 1870s and 1880s, paintings by Dutch artists destined for the annual Salon in Paris were exhibited for a few days in the Logezaal hall on Fluweelen Burgwal before being sent to Paris. This was probably arranged by Pulchri Studio, possibly in collaboration with Goupil & Cie. See, for example, Algemeen Handelsblad, 6 March 1876, 3 and 7 March 1880, and 15 March 1882.

Letter 246, n. 6 changed to:
The windmill De Laakmolen near The Hague (F 844) and View of The Hague from the northeast (F 916). By ‘experiment’ Van Gogh very probably meant the works on Harding paper, which he discusses further on in the letter (l. 178-179). The windmill De Laakmolen near The Hague is on Harding paper.

Letter 280, n. 19:
‘The series was reissued in 1859’ changed to: ‘The series was reissued in 1853 and in 1859’

Letter 280, n. 24 changed to:
Jean-François Millet’s The gleaners, 1857 (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Ill. 1891. This was published as an engraving and photogravure in the Musée Goupil series: Les glaneuses (NB 90.I.2.2275 and 95.I.2.611); an aquatint by Alphonse Masson, titled Gleaning in Belgium, appeared in The Art Journal 14 (NS, 1875), facing p. 188.

Letter 354, n. 12, added at the end of the note:
The type of pencil Van Gogh is referring to is known as a Försterstift in German (forester’s pencil). It is a thick pencil sturdy enough to mark wet wood. Although there are no known drawings from the Hague period that were made with this kind of pencil, it may have been used for letter 362 and the associated sketch, F - / JH 380, as well as for the Drenthe drawing, Ploughman and three women (F 1096r / JH 411). See Van Gogh's studio practice, ed. Marije Vellekoop et al., Brussels 2013, pp. 392, 405.

Letter 381, n. 1 changed to:
Landscape with leaning trees (F 196 / JH 957).

Letter 381, n. 2 changed to:
Farm in Loosduinen near The Hague (F 16 / JH 391).

Letter 477, n. 4:
‘based on a fairy tale by Grimm’ changed to: ‘inspired by Swedish folklore’

Letter 535, n. 1, added at the end of the note:
The consignment probably also contained a still life with potatoes, which Van Gogh overpainted with a flower still life in Paris, Still life with gladioli (F 248 / JH 1146).

Letter 577, n. 2:
‘Arles had a population of about 23,500 in 1888’ changed to: ‘The commune of Arles, including the surrounding villages, had 23,500 inhabitants in 1888 (ACA). The town itself had a population of about 13,300 in 1888. See Murphy 2016, pp. 38, 265 (n. 10).’

Letter 577, n. 3 changed to:
Van Gogh took the express train from Paris to Marseille (the ‘Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée’) that left at 9.40 pm on Sunday 19 February and arrived in Arles at 4.49 pm the following day. The train passed through Tarascon, a small town about 20 km to the north of Arles. See Murphy 2016, pp. 25, 36, 263 (n. 33), 264 (n. 3).

Letter 577, n. 5 changed to:
Van Gogh wrote that the antique dealer had his premises ‘in this very street’; however the address books do not record any in rue Amédée-Pichot or rue de la Cavalerie. The closest antique dealer was Berthet, 5 rue de la Sous-Préfecture, just off rue Amédée-Pichot.

Letter 585, n. 8:
‘stabbed to death … The investigation of the crime…’ changed to: ‘stabbed to death when leaving a brothel in rue des Récollets after a row with three Italian labourers. This brothel, the 'maison de tolérance' no. 14 on the corner of the rue du Bout d’Arles and rue des Récollets, must have been the one that Van Gogh visited. See Murphy 2016, pp. 60-61, 270 n. 8. The investigation of the crime...’

Letter 595, n. 4 changed to:
The painting intended for Tersteeg was The Langlois bridge with washerwomen (F 397 / JH 1368); the repetition of this is The Langlois bridge with washerwomen (F 571 / JH 1392). The name Pont de l'Anglais was often used at the time, although the bridge was later usually known as Pont de Langlois. See Martin Bailey, Studio of the South. Van Gogh in Provence. London 2016, pp. 73, 202 (n. 2).

Letter 602, n. 19 changed to:
The Service du cadastre (land register) in Arles lists one Aimé Verdier, ‘propriétaire à Milhaud (Gard)’ as the owner of lot numbers 398 and 399 from 1858 to 1910. The ‘Maison Verdier' was all of 2, place Lamartine as well as the large building behind. When Van Gogh lived at 2 place Lamartine, it was no longer owned by Aimé Verdier, who had died in 1872. The house had passed on to his daughter, Marie Louise Verdier, and her husband, Raymond Triare-Brun. See Murphy 2016, p. 273 (n. 13).
The left-hand side of place Lamartine 2 was occupied by the grocer’s shop run by François Damase Crevoulin and his wife Marguerite Favier; the right-hand side was the accommodation rented by Van Gogh. In the summons of February 1889, Soulè is described as ‘landlord, of 53 avenue Montmajour ... managing agent of the house occupied by Mr Vincent van Gogh’ (see Documentation, 27 February 1889). The land register records only one building in his name: 53 avenue de Montmajour (lot number 373), diagonally opposite the Yellow House, in the block where the police station was also located. Soulè was therefore not the owner of the Yellow House but the agent who collected the rent on behalf of Mme Verdier.

Letter 603, n. 5 changed to:
In the estate there are various photographs of Willemien at about 20 years old; Van Gogh may have had one of these portraits in mind. Ill. 2183 and Ill. 3113. It is difficult to say how old she is in these photographs, but judging by Van Gogh’s remark the second is the most likely. Later Willemien actually did go mad; she died in an asylum in 1941.

Letter 621, original text and translation:
‘Rue Coëllogon’ changed to : ‘Rue Coëtlogon’

Letter 638, n. 17 changed to:
The cleaning woman was Thérèse Balmoissière. See Murphy 2016, p. 94. Van Gogh paid her 20 francs a month (see letter 736). See also letter 747, n. 1.

Letter 657, translation:
‘I’ve worked on another figure of a Zouave’ changed to: I’ve worked again on a figure of a Zouave’

Letter 663, n. 1, added at the beginning of the note:
Patience Escalier has not been identified. Perhaps ‘Patience’ was a nickname; in that case a man called François Casimir Escalier (1816-1889) from the nearby village of Eyragues may have been Van Gogh's model (Murphy 2016, p. 98).

Letter 677, n. 12 changed to: Thérèse Balmoissière (see letter 638, n. 17). In 1888 Thérèse was 49 years old, had eight children and numerous grandchildren.

Letter 691, translation:
‘the fields are mauve’ changed to: ‘the areas of land are mauve’

Letter 705, translation:
‘bedspread’ changed to: ‘blanket’

Letter 706, translation:
‘bedspread’ changed to: ‘blanket’

Letter 712, n. 2 changed to:
Gauguin arrived at four in the morning on Tuesday, 23 October. It had taken him from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning to get from Pont-Aven to Arles, as he told Schuffenecker on 25 October 1888. See Merlhès 1989, pp. 124-127. For the route he took see Correspondance Gauguin 1984, p. 510 (n. 294), exhib. cat. Chicago 2001, p. 54 (fig. 5), and Murphy 2016, p. 281 (n. 1).

Letter 736, n. 5: ‘Theo handwriting … New Year’ changed to: ‘His handwriting is recognizable, and the number ‘67’ in the postmark refers to place des Abbesses (office 67), the address of the post office where the letter was franked. There are also two postage stamps, one yellowish green, the other blue. They are probably one of 15 centimes, which was the normal rate for a letter, and one of 25 centimes, which was the extra postage for a registered letter. In the top left corner of the envelope there is a capital letter in a rectangle, probably R for Recommandée (Registered), so it is likely that this was the envelope containing Theo's letter and the 100 franc note that Vincent received on 23 December.’

Letter 745, translation:
‘a little music of local colour’ changed to: ‘a little music of colour from here’

Letter 745, n. 18:
The ‘Chronique locale’ in Le Forum Républicain of Sunday, 30 December 1888 reported that in the night of 23 December Van Gogh had offered his severed ear to ‘a certain Rachel’ (la nommée Rachel) at ‘brothel No. 1’ (maison de tolérance No. 1) in rue du Bout d’Arles. The brothel was on the corner of rue des Glacières and rue du Bout d'Arles. Police officer Alphonse Robert later recalled that the girl worked under the name of Gaby (Doiteau and Leroy 1939, p. 6). In fact her name was Gabrielle; see Murphy 2016, pp. 66-69, 217-227.

Letter 745, n. 19:
‘Van Gogh most likely means that he should consult … recommended by Raspail, namely home medication’ changed to: ‘Van Gogh most likely means: just like Ricord cures venereal disease, Raspail will be able to give me the best advice, namely home medication.’

Letter 749, n. 4:
‘Salles’s letters to Theo of 2 and 18 March have been preserved (FR b1051 and FR b1049)’ changed to: ‘Salles’s letters to Theo of 1, 2 and 18 March have been preserved (FR b1048, b1051 and b1049).’

Letter 761, translation :
‘It will perhaps turn out all right in the end.’ changed to: ‘It may return in the long run.’

Letter 800, n. 3 changed to:
This must refer to the repetition, The bedroom (F 484 / JH 1771), which exhibits substantial areas of paint loss that accord with what Van Gogh describes. See Inge Fiedler et al., ‘Material, intention, and evolution’, in exhib. cat. Van Gogh’s bedrooms. Chicago (The Art Institute of Chicago), 2016, p. 94.

Letter 804, n. 18 changed to:
Guillaumin exhibited his Self-portrait with palette in 1880 at the fifth exhibition of the Impressionists (no. 72, Portrait de M.G.). Portrait of a young woman was shown at the eighth and last exhibition, in 1886 (no. 65, Portrait). See Ruth Berson, The new painting. Impressionism 1874-1886. Documentation. Volume II. Exhibited Works. San Francisco 1996, pp. 150, 244.

Letter 896, n. 9 changed to:
That is a Paris address. When he was in Auvers Walpole Brooke stayed at Hotel-restaurant du Cadran in rue Victor Hugo, which is the address scribbled on a calling card of his in the family estate: ‘Holet [i.e. Hotel] du Cadran / Auvers-sur-Oise’ (FR b9063).

Letter RM09:
‘weefsel’ changed to: ‘welfsel’
‘Maar toonloos’ changed to: ‘Naar, toonloos’

Letter RM09, translation:
‘Drapery looming’ changed to: ‘Looming vault’
‘His burial was just as drab’ changed to: ‘His burial was as grim and drab’

Letter RM09, n. 1 changed to:
Nine of the quotations copied out on these sheets are translations by Bernhard van Meurs of poems by Ludwig Uhland. They are included in Het leven van Ludwig van Uhland en vertalingen uit zijn dichtbundel, Nijmegen 1877. (Abbreviated below as Van Meurs 1877). There are several textual discrepancies, mostly small ones, and differences in punctuation. Those variants may indicate that Van Gogh used a slightly earlier edition. He occasionally omitted lines or stanzas. The first poem is ‘Het Orgel’ (Van Gogh used the title ‘Avondzang’). Van Meurs 1877, p. 130. Van Gogh quoted the German version in two of his poetry albums. See Pabst 1988, pp. 34 and 45. The source text has ‘Mijn hart’ (My heart) in line 4.

Letter RM09, n. 4 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘De pelgrimstogt’. Van Meurs 1877, pp. 95-98. Translated from Ludwig Uhland. Van Gogh omitted ‘En juublende zangen’ (between lines 53 and 54) from the source text, wrote ‘zijn’ instead of ‘mijn’ (l. 73 and 75), ‘zijgt’ instead of ‘zinkt’ (l. 76), and ‘Zacht’ instead of ‘Zoet’ (l. 104). The poem was also published in De Katholiek. Godsdienstig-, geschiedkundig en letterkundig Maandschrift 69, Nieuwe reeks, derde deel, Leiden 1876, pp. 124-127. Van Gogh quoted five stanzas from the German version (‘Der Pilger’) in one of his poetry albums. See Pabst 1988, p. 42.

Letter RM09, n. 5 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘Een geluk in de kindsheid’. Van Meurs 1877, p. 152. Translated from Ludwig Uhland.

Letter RM09, n. 6 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘Lied van een gevangene’. Van Meurs 1877, p. 150. Translated from Ludwig Uhland. Van Gogh quoted only the first of the two stanzas.

Letter RM09, n. 7 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘De koning op het torenplat’. Van Meurs 1877, pp. 141-142. Translated from Ludwig Uhland. The source text has ‘ook’ instead of ‘steeds’ (l. 160).

Letter RM09, n. 8 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘Een wintermorgen’. Van Meurs 1877, pp. 151-152. Translated from Ludwig Uhland.

Letter RM09, n. 9 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘De leeuweriken’. Van Meurs 1877, p. 157. Translated from Ludwig Uhland. The last two lines in the source text read ‘Eén belust op tierelier / Fladdert in mijn binnenst’ hier!’ (l. 193-194).

Letter RM09, n. 10 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘Het kerkhof in de lente’. Van Meurs 1877, p. 153. Translated from Ludwig Uhland. Van Gogh quotes the first and third stanzas but omits the three lines of the second stanza, probably because of their harsh tone: ‘Ach, ik vrees dat straks de dood / Naar uw vunzen donkren schoot / Een der mijnen weg zal dragen’ (Oh, I fear that death / Will soon take one of mine / To your dark and filthy lap).

Letter RM09, n. 11 changed to:
Bernhard van Meurs, ‘Avondwolken’. Van Meurs 1877, p. 164. Translated from Ludwig Uhland.

About this edition

Section 4.2.4:
The translations of colours and pigments have been kept as close as possible to Van Gogh’s wording. For example, ‘vert éméraude’ is translated literally as ‘emerald green’ and ‘vert Véronèse’ as ‘Veronese green’, whereas technically ‘vert Véronèse’ is emerald green (copper acetoarsenite green) and ‘vert éméraude’ is viridian (hydrated chrome oxide green). (For pigment terminology in French and English see Elisabeth West FitzHugh (ed.) Artists' pigments: a handbook of their history and characteristics, Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1997, vol. 3, chapters 8 and 9, and exhib. cat. London 1990.)

Glossary of Materials and Techniques

vert éméraude viridian (hydrated chrome oxide green). In this edition ‘vert éméraude’ is translated literally as ‘emerald green’.

vert Véronèse emerald green (copper acetoarsenite green). In this edition ‘vert Véronèse’ is translated literally as 'Veronese green'.

Bibliography

Exhib. cat. Amsterdam 2016
On the verge of insanity. Van Gogh and his illness. Nienke Bakker, Louis van Tilborgh, Laura Prins. Exhib. cat. Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum) 2016. Brussels and Amsterdam 2016.

Exhib. cat. Mons 2015
Van Gogh: The birth of an artist. Sjraar van Heugten et al. Exhib. cat. Mons (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Brussels 2015.

Van Meurs 1877
Bernhard van Meurs, Het leven van Ludwig van Uhland en vertalingen uit zijn dichtbundel. Nijmegen 1877.

Murphy 2016
Bernadette Murphy, Van Gogh’s ear. The true story. London 2016.

Chronology

1888
‘around 10 March’ changed to: ‘before 10 March’

1888
10 May
Sends at least 26 paintings to Theo (606, 607).

1889
Mid-November: Visits Arles (820).

Images

Letter 157, n. 23:
Image of Millet, Buckwheat harvest (ill. 3112).

Letter 246, n. 6:
Images of The windmill De Laakmolen near The Hague (F 844 / JH 59) and View of The Hague from the northeast (F 916 / JH 162).

Letter 290, n. 9:
New image of Breitner, Council of war at the time of the Batavian Republic (ill. 2037).

Letter 381, n. 1:
Images of Landscape with leaning trees (F 196 / JH 957).

Letter 381, n. 2:
Image of Farm in Loosduinen near The Hague (F 16 / JH 391).

Letter 603, n. 5:
Photograph of Willemien van Gogh (ill. 3113).

Letter 654, n. 1:
Image of The road to Tarascon (F 1502a / JH 1531).

Letter 750, n.3:
New images of petition and police report (ills. 2278 and 2280).

Updates (Version November 2014)

Letters

Letter 31, n. 2:
‘Haarlemse Sluis on the Singel’ changed to: ‘Haarlemse Sluis on Singel’

Letter 109, n. 5:
‘The flower market on the Singel’ changed to: ‘The flower market on Singel’

Letter 131, n. 2, added at the end of the note:
Two days later Van Gogh  visited the Trippenhuis again, writing his name in the visitors’ book. See Groot and De Vries 1990, p. 57.

Letter 148, n. 22 changed to:
See letter 85, in which Van Gogh wrote that one had to be 24 years old to be an evangelist ‘among the workers and the poor’ in London.

Letter 152, n. 1 changed to:
Since January, Vincent had been working as an evangelist, giving Bible readings, teaching and visiting the sick. See letter 150, n. 2.

Letter 156, n. 9 changed to:
This drawing and its pendant, which Van Gogh mentions later in the letter, are both unknown.

Letter 157, n. 8 added at the end of the note:
The ‘croquis’ is the letter sketch Miners in the snow at dawn in letter 156, which was done after an earlier drawing.

Letter 193, translation:
‘steal it?)’ changed to: ‘steal it?).’

Letter 214, translation:
‘pay Tersteeg I have’ changed to: ‘pay Tersteeg – I have’

Letter 280, noot 11 changed to:
... had moved in 1875 from Plaats 14 to Plaats 20 in The Hague.

Letter 288, n. 5 changed to:
Meissonier did several studio scenes in which a painter or draughtsman is seen from behind. Van Gogh probably means A painter, 1855, The Cleveland Museum of Art. Ill. 252. This painting was well known through Bingham's photo, reproduced in Burty 1866, p. 86 (cf. letter 38, n. 9).

Letter 332, translation:
‘stivers’ changed to: ‘stuivers’

Letter 439, n. a:
‘l. 278’ changed to: ‘l. 196’

Letter 545, n. 9:
1888 changed to: 1885

Letter 569, translation:
‘figurepainting’ changed to: ‘figure painting’

Letter 613, n. 2 and letter 615, n. 12:
The plain of La Crau (F 1448 / JH 1432) changed to: View from Montmajour (F 1448 / JH 1432)

Letter 638, note added:
4. In Loti’s novel Madame Chrysanthème, which Van Gogh was reading at the time (see letters 637 and 639), there are similar illustrations of cicadas. See Loti 1888, pp. 107, 286 and 312.

Letter 639, n. 6 changed to:
The painting Sunset at Montmajour (F - / JH - ), which he had done two weeks earlier on Montmajour (see letter 636).

Letter 677:
Notes 9 and 10 have been reversed.

Letter 721, n. 15:
‘1880’ changed to: ‘1881’

Letter 776, n. 7:
‘Island fisherman’ changed to: ‘Icelandic fisherman’

Letter 783, n. 5:
‘Parrin’ changed to: ‘Perrin’

Letter 790, n. 7, added at the end of the note:
Cf. letter 638, n. 4.

Letter 791, n. 1 changed to:
On Sunday, 7 July 1889 Van Gogh undertook a supervised journey to Arles (see letters 787 and 789).

Letter 865, n. 3 changed to:
The estate contains a heliogravure of The raising of Lazarus (Ill. 357), published by Amand-Durand in the series Eaux-fortes et gravures des maîtres anciens, an engraving and a reproduction (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. t574, t476 and p991, respectively). The heliogravure is a reproduction of the fifth state of Rembrandt’s etching (B73), which was in the Dutuit Collection in Paris. Van Gogh’s painting The raising of Lazarus (after a detail from an etching by Rembrandt) (F 677 / JH 1672) is based on the heliogravure; cf. the sketch in letter 866.

Letter 873, Date, changed to:
The letter was most likely written on the day of Van Gogh’s arrival in Auvers. In this letter he tells about his first visit to Gachet and reflects on his stay in Paris. Dr Gachet noted in his diary on 20 May: ‘M. Van Gogh’. See Paul Gachet, Deux amis des impressionnistes: le docteur Gachet et Murer. Paris 1956, p. 106. On 20 May 1890 Jo van Gogh-Bonger made entries in her Household book for ‘railway’ and ‘carriage’ (0.20 en 2.00 francs, respectively). These expenses presumably indicate that Vincent went to the station that day (Wednesday, 21 May contains no entries that could be connected with his departure on that day). See Household book of Mrs Theodorus van Gogh-Bonger, April 1889 - September 1891 (FR b2211). Jo’s brother, Andries Bonger, wrote on 21 May 1890 to his parents: ‘Vincent the painter has already left’ (FR b1852). On the basis of this information, we have dated Van Gogh’s letter to Tuesday, 20 May 1890. Twenty-five years later, however, Jo said that Vincent had left on 21 May (Brieven 1914, p. lxi), though her reasons for saying this are not clear.

Letter 896, n. 9:
‘Edmund Walpole Brooke (?-?), (English?) artist’ changed to: ‘Edmund Walpole Brooke (1865-?), Australian artist’

RM15, note added:
1. This painting by Monet is Under the pine trees at the end of the day : see letter 615, n. 11.

Images

Letter 288, n. 5:
Image of Meissonier, A painter, 1855, The Cleveland Museum of Art (ill. 252).

Letter 363, n. 20:
New image of Breitner, Een hoefsmid te Brabant (ill. 633).

Biographical & historical context, section 4:
New image of Vincent van Gogh at the age of 19 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum / Vincent van Gogh Foundation). Image corrected through reversal.

Credit lines

‘Upperville, Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon’ changed to: ‘Washington, National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon’

Biographical & historical context

Section 3.3:
‘Between January and May 1889 he paid 21.50 francs a month’ changed to: ‘Between December 1888 and May 1889 he paid 21.50 francs a month’

Chronology

1877, 20 September
Visits the Trippenhuis again and leaves his signature in the visitors’ book (131).

1889, 7 July
Travels to Arles with an escort to collect paintings (787, 789).

Updates (Version October 2013)

Letters

Letters 43, 325, 618, 740, 851, and 853, Location:
Private Collection / Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, Brussels.

Letter 93, n. 13 changed to:
Elbert Jan van Wisselingh had received his training at Goupil’s in The Hague (1864-1866) and in Paris (1866-1874). He and the art dealer Daniel Cottier were business partners in London in the years 1874-1882. Their gallery was at 8 Pall Mall. See Heijbroek and Wouthuysen 1999. The windows are located in St Andrew’s Church in Owslebury, near Winchester. They were commissioned by William Carnegie, 8th Earl of Northesk, as a memorial to his wife and daughter, who both died before him. Both women are depicted as the Virgin Mary. In the family scrapbook of the earl’s descendants, Max Donnelly found photographs of the designs that Van Gogh had described. See Max Donnelly, ‘“Such a noble face”: Vincent van Gogh, Daniel Cottier and the Northesk memorials’, Burlington Magazine 153 (2011), pp. 568-571. Ills. 3099-3102.

Letter 93, n. 15 changed to:
Heb. 11:1. The quotation that Van Gogh saw in the original design was replaced with: ‘Fear not, only believe’. See Max Donnelly, ‘“Such a noble face”: Vincent van Gogh, Daniel Cottier and the Northesk memorials’, The Burlington Magazine 153 (2011), p. 571.

Letter 262, Location:
Auction Monte Carlo, 18 July 2012.

Letter 280, n. 7 second paragraph changed to:
There are several versions of Daumier’s The third-class carriage; see Maison 1968, vol. 1, pp. 141-143, cat. nos. I-165 and I-166. In 1888 and 1890 Theo was to sell two works with this subject (GRI, Goupil Ledgers). Theo had probably seen the version now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (Ill. 58); which was sold at auction in Paris on May 8, 1882 (no. 7). The version in the Metropolitan Museum was in a private collection by 1878 and is not known to have been seen publicly until purchased by Durand-Ruel in 1892. See cat. Daumier 1808–1879 (National Gallery of Canada, 1999), no. 270 and https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436095.

Letter 361, translation:
‘the large one in Mesdag’ changed to: ‘Mesdag’s large one’

Letter 500, n. 19 changed to:
Millet’s The church at Gréville, which Van Gogh had seen in the Musée du Luxembourg in 1875; see letter 36, n. 9.

Letter 509, original text:
‘in zijn eigen land’ changed to: ‘in mijn eigen land’
‘buiten mijn eigen land’ changed to: ‘buiten zijn eigen land’

Letter 569, n. 13:
‘Charles Antoine (also known as Antonio Cristobal)’ changed to: ‘Cristóbal de Antonio (1862 or 1870 - ?)’

Letter 636, n. 3 changed to:
Sunset at Montmajour (F - / JH -). See Louis van Tilborgh et al. 2013.

Letter 660, n. 6 changed to:
Sunset at Montmajour (F - / JH -). See letter 636, n. 3.

Letter 683, n. 29 changed to:
… lessons.’ Quoted in Verzamelde brieven 1973, vol. 3, p. 95. The music teacher was Hein van der Zande (1820-1903), according to Dimmen Gestel in Het Eindhovensch Dagblad, 10 October 1930. Charles Blanc had written …

Letter 716, Location:
Private collection.

Letter 716, Source status:
Original manuscript.

Letter 716, original text:
‘e[n] train’ changed to: ‘en train’

Letter 736, n. 5:
‘possibly’ changed to ‘probably’.

Letter 774, n. 3 changed to:
… with Theo. From letter 775 it emerges that Joseph Roulin had at least one portrait in his possession, though which of the above-mentioned it was cannot be said with certainty either. It could not have been the large Joseph Roulin (F 432 / JH 1522) that Van Gogh had withheld from the August consignment (see letter 660) because he used that to make three more portraits of Roulin. See cat. Otterlo 2003, p. 267. Roulin may have received this painting later. It came into the possession of Cornelis Hoogendijk, who probably acquired it from Vollard. In 1900 …

Letter 811, n. 9 changed to:
Landscape in the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (F 726 / JH 1874). Ill. 3107.

Letter 879, n. 11, added at the end of the note:
He had sent the painting to Theo on 29 April, see letters 863 and 867.

Letter 891, n. 6 changed to:
Probably Landscape in the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (F 726 / JH1874), which measures 33 x 41 cm. Another possibility is F 723 / JH 1722, which measures 37.5 x 30.5 cm.

Images

Letters 246, n. 13 and 594, n. 16:
New image of Rousseau’s The descent of the cattle in the High Jura mountains (ill. 402).

Letter 280, n. 7:
Image of Honoré Daumier, The Third-class Carriage, c. 1863-1865, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (ill. 58).

Letter 691:
New images of pages 2r:5 and 2v:6.

Letter 716:
New images of the letter (recto and verso).

Letters 811, n. 9 and 891, n. 6:
Image of Landscape in the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (F 726 / JH 1874) (ill. 3107).

Letter 842:
New images of the letter (recto and verso).

Chronology

1886, 1 May-30 June: ‘Visits the Salon, and lists the names of 21 painters who exhibited there in his sketchbook of the period (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum).’

Publication history

‘she was also guilty of outright censorship; she expunged from the correspondence all mention of her sister-in-law Anna, with whom she did not get on.’ changed to: ‘she also expunged from the correspondence – probably by mutual agreement – paragraphs about people who were still alive.’

Bibliography

Van Tilborgh et al. 2013
Louis van Tilborgh, Teio Meedendorp and Oda van Maanen, ‘‘Sunset at Montmajour’: a newly discovered painting by Vincent van Gogh’, in The Burlington Magazine 155 (2013), pp. 696-705.

Updates (version June 2012)

Letters

A recently discovered letter was added (letter 1a).

Letter 12, n. 7 changed to:
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Britain’s oldest public gallery with a famous collection of seventeenth-century paintings. On Monday, 4 August, Van Gogh wrote his signature ‘VWvanGogh the Hague’ in the visitor’s book (Documentation Dulwich Picture Gallery). Ill. 3104.

Letter 43, Location:
Auction Sotheby’s New York, 13 December 2011, lot 174.

Letter 156, n. b changed to:
Sclôneurs and sclôneuses were usually children who worked deep underground in the passages immediately behind a miner and dragged the coal away in baskets. Those baskets were known as sclônes in the local patois. With thanks to Freddy Godart. The term ‘sclôneuse’ (a woman who worked in the pits) is also found in Zola’s Germinal.

Letter 159, n. 1 changed to:
Van Gogh had meanwhile installed himself in Brussels in a small lodging-house at 72 boulevard du Midi (Zuidlaan). He was not registered at this address, however. For a photo of this location (from the Archives de la Ville de Bruxelles), see Tralbaut 1969, p. 74.

Letter 160, n. 3 changed to:
From the first week of November 1880 Van Gogh was enrolled as a student at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) at Brussels for the course ‘Dessin d’après l’antique: torse et fragments’ (Drawing from antiquity: torso and fragments), under registration number 8488. See exhib. cat. Brussels 1987, pp. 239-242; and De Bodt 1995, p. 278. Van Gogh’s failure to write anything at all about his experiences at the Academy led Hulsker to doubt whether he actually attended any classes (Hulsker 1990-1, p. 91). He must have done, though, for he took part in a concours on 5 December 1880. See Bart Moens, De kunstenaarsopleiding van Vincent van Gogh in Brussel. Unpublished bachelor's thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2012, pp. 36-47. It emerges from letter 161 and others that Van Gogh left the academy shortly afterwards, probably because he finished last in the concours.

Letter 178, n. 1 changed to:
Van Rappard lived at rue Lombard 17, around the corner from Zuidstraat, where the Academie voor Schone Kunsten was housed. The enrolment register shows that Van Rappard attended the 1880-81 and 1881-82 courses. That makes it very unlikely that he attended the Academie in Sint Joost, as was previously thought; see exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, p. 12.

Letter 217, translation:
‘etching with no burr’ changed to ‘undeburred etching’

Letter 217, n. 2:
‘etching with no burr’ changed to ‘undeburred etching’

Letter 259, translation:
‘the cuisine of art’ changed to ‘the cookery of art’

Letter 317, translation:
‘numbers’ changed to ‘nos.’

Letter 357, n. 4 changed to:
The painting is most probably L’attente – Le samedi à Villerville, Calvados (Waiting – Saturday at Villerville, Calvados) (present whereabouts unknown). A photograph of the work was published in L’Illustration 43 (21 March 1885), pp. 189-190. Ill. 664. The etching by Butin is ill. 3105.

Letter 534, n. 8 changed to:
Frans Hals, The merry drinker, c. 1628-1630. Ill. 150. Van Gogh borrowed the term ‘citron amorti’ (dull lemon) from De Goncourt’s Chérie, where an artist talks of ‘la nuance citron amorti’, which was a fashionable colour in the eighteenth century (ed. 1884, p. 182). Van Gogh had just read this book (see n. 18).

Letter 551, original text:
‘Delacrocheachtigheid’ changed to ‘Delarocheachtigheid’

Letter 555, n. 2 changed to:
This work with nude torsos was overpainted by Van Gogh in Paris with Still life with meadow flowers and roses, 1886 (F 278 / JH 1103). Ill. 3103. See Luuk Struick van der Loeff et al., ‘Rehabilitation of a flower still life in the Kröller-Müller Museum and a lost Antwerp painting by Van Gogh’, in Van Gogh: New Findings. Van Gogh Studies 4. Zwolle and Amsterdam 2012, pp. 33-54.

Letter 569, original text and translation:
‘though not being one of the club yet I have much admired’ changed to ‘though not being one of the club, yet I have much admired’

Letter 573, translation:
‘humble’ changed to ‘obedient’

Letter 663, n. 1:
‘Van Gogh undoubtedly saw the work at the Millet exhibition in Paris in 1887’ changed to ‘Van Gogh saw the work at the Millet exhibition in Paris in 1887’.

Letter 698, n. 8:
‘Unpublished letter from Bernard to his father, 28 January 1900, Getty Center’ changed to ‘Letter from Bernard to his father, 28 January 1900 (Bernard lettres 2012, no. 249).’

Letter 753, n. 1 changed to:
Van Gogh must be referring to the café proprietor Joseph Ginoux and his wife, Marie, who were friends of his. Ginoux had not signed the petition, but the statement he made to the police confirmed the neighbours’ complaints about Van Gogh’s indecent behaviour. See letter 750, nn. 2 and 3, Documentation, shortly before 27 February 1889, and Ill. 2278-2280.

Letter 776, n.4 changed to:
the Berceuse he had left with Tanguy had been sold for 600 francs. See Bernard lettres 2012, no. 147, p. 338.

Letter 822, n. 4 changed to:
This refers to the painted sketch for Millet’s painting Birth of the calf, c. 1864, which Van Gogh must have seen at the retrospective exhibition of Millet’s work in Paris in 1887. This first, unfinished version (ill. 1170) was well-known through the engraving that Maxime François Antoine Lalanne made after it for the catalogue of the Alfred Saucède sale in 1879 (Lugt 1938-1987, no. 38966).

Letter 879, n. 15 changed to:
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Inter Artes et Naturam (Between art and nature), 1890 (Musée de Rouen). A smaller version is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Ill. 316). Van Gogh had seen the painting at the exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. See exhib. cat. Paris 1890-4, p. xxii, no. 718, and RM21. Van Gogh made the letter sketch (F - / JH -) from memory.

RM03, Date:
‘(before 1875)’ changed to ‘(end 1874 - early 1875)’

Chronology

1886, 1 May-30 June:
‘Probably visits the Salon’ changed to ‘Visits the Salon, and lists the names of 18 painters who exhibited there in his sketchbook of the period (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum).’

1886, 15 May-15 June:
‘Probably visits the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition’ changed to ‘Visits the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition (569)’

1887, May-June:
Probably also visits the Millet retrospective at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts’ changed to: ‘Visits the Millet retrospective at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts (822)’

Bibliography

Bernard lettres 2012
Emile Bernard. Les lettres d'un artiste (1884-1941). Ed. Neil McWilliam. Paris 2012.

Jansen et al. 2012
Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker, ‘Waiting to be discovered. An unknown letter from 1872 by Vincent van Gogh’, Van Gogh: New findings. Van Gogh Studies 4. Zwolle and Amsterdam 2012, pp. 10-18.

Images

Letter 12, n. 7:
Image of Van Gogh’s signature (ill. 3104).

Letter 43:
New images of the letter (recto and verso).

Letter 357, n. 4
New image of Butin’s etching (ill. 3105).

Letter 555, n. 2:
Image of X-ray (ill. 3103).

Letter 768:
New image of sheet 2 recto.