1. The bookshop and art dealership of C.M. van Gogh was located at Keizersgracht 453.

2. At that time an exhibition was being held on the top floor of a special wing between Haarlem’s Prinsenhof and the Stadhuis, at which seven works by Frans Hals were on display: a canvas with the regents and regentesses of the Oudemannenhuis, a group portrait of the regents and regentesses of the Elisabeth Gasthuis and five militia pieces. See cat. Haarlem 1877.

3. Matt. 13:52.

4. Isa. 53:3.

5. Rom. 8:38-39.

6. 2 Cor. 7:10.

7. Luke 10:42.

8. Matt. 3:8.

9. 1 Kings 17.

10. From October 1875 until January 1876, Van Gogh and Gladwell lived in the same building in Montmartre.

11. Cf. 1 Kings 17:14-16.

12. The parable of the sower is to be found in Matt. 13:3-9, Mark 4:3-20 and Luke 8:5-15.

13. Van Gogh had meanwhile compiled a notebook containing in various languages the parables (and miracles) related in the Gospels (see letter 128).

14. For the purchase of Bossuet’s Oraisons funèbres, see letter 129; regarding Bunyan’s The pilgrim’s progress, see letter 99, n. 22 and letter 96, n. 17.

15. Christoffel Martinus Vos gave Vincent De imitatione Christi by Thomas a Kempis.

16. For Cromwell by Alphonse Marie Louis Prat de Lamartine, see letter 119, n. 4. See letter 114 for the lithographs after Johannes Bosboom which Van Gogh bought.

17. Cf. Matt. 7:7 and Luke 11:9.

18. For the phrase ‘love of Christ’, cf. Rom. 8:35, 2 Cor. 5:14 and Eph. 3:19.

19. Prov. 30:8.

20. Biblical.

21. Eccl. 9:10.

22. Cf. 1 Cor. 7:20.

23. Mrs Richard died on 4 September 1877 at 2 a.m. Mr van Gogh had kept watch at her deathbed. On the day she died, he sent Theo a detailed report of her fateful accident and the tragic circumstances of her death: ‘there on the floor of the drawing-room suite – the dying woman, who could not even be picked up to be laid on a bed, her death throes lasted more than 3 times 24 hours, and it took that much time before that woman’s strong constitution was exhausted’ (FR b2554).