354

Br. 1990: 356 | CL: R37
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Anthon van Rappard
Date: The Hague, on or about Friday, 15 June 1883
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1. For the etching after Millet’s The two diggers [1876], see letter 142, n. 18.
[1876]
2. For Millet’s The large shepherdess seated [267], see letter 216, n. 2.
[267]
3. Henri Leys’s paintings of 1855 were part of the dining room in his home, now Leysstraat 12 in Antwerp. After Leys’s death in 1869 the so-called ‘Hotel Leys’ was opened to visitors. The decoration, a frieze 6.5 metres long, has been in ‘the small Leys room’ of Antwerp town hall since 1897 and bears the title Een kerstfeest in de zestiende eeuw (A Christmas celebration in the sixteenth century). See N. de Poorter, Inventaris van de kunstwerken in het stadhuis van Antwerpen. Schilderijen – grafiek – beeldhouwkunst. Antwerp 1988; and Todts 1988, pp. 104-105.
La promenade dans la neige (La promenade sur les remparts) (The walk in the snow (The walk on the ramparts) is part of Vrolijk gezelschap (Merry Company) (153 x 644 cm). Ill. 1055 [1055]. ‘The skaters’ is Het oversteken van de brug (Crossing the bridge) (153 x 504 cm) – part of the work was lost as a result of alterations to the room (Van Gogh comes back to that in letter 544). Ill. 1056 [1056]. ‘The reception’ is Het welkom (The welcome) (137 x 222 cm). Ill. 1057 [1057]. ‘The table’ and ‘The servant’ are part of De feesttafel (The festive table) (153 x 220 cm). Ill. 1059 [1059].
It seems that Van Gogh first saw the decorations in situ in November 1885 (letter 544). His remark in the present letter about the outlines indicates that he had seen reproductions previously. Photographs of the decorations (by Fierlants among others) were available, and there were etchings by Bracquemond (cf. letter 542); Leys and a pupil had also made smaller copies.
[510] [1055] [1056] [1057] [1059]
4. Probably Jacob Maris.
5. Peat diggers in the dunes (F 1031 / JH 363 [2437]).
[2437]
6. The drawing of the sand quarry, first mentioned in letter 348, (‘team of workmen labouring’), is not known.
7. Van Gogh did two drawings of the dung-heap, which are both unknown; they are first mentioned in letters 350 and 352.
8. This drawing of ‘loading coal’ is not known; it is the same drawing as the one said in letter 353 to have been done at Rijnspoor station.
9. Brighton Highroad is probably Caldecott’s Afternoon in King’s road [669]; see letter 276, n. 9.
[669]
a. Means: ‘Landarbeider’ (farm labourer).
10. Old man in his Sunday best with an eye patch (F 1003 / JH 285 [2423]). Drawings from the sessions mentioned here are not known.
[2423]
b. Means: ‘figuurtekeningen die die naam werkelijk verdienen’, ‘figuurtekeningen in de ware zin van het woord’ (figure drawings truly worthy of the name, figure drawings in the true sense of the term).
11. For Van Rappard’s drawings in the Institute for the Blind, see letter 345, n. 3.
12. Faber is a German manufacturer of pencils and other artists’ materials.
13. This pencil drawing of a woman sewing on grey paper is not known.
14. For these contributions to Harper’s New Monthly Magazine by Abbey and Boughton, see letter 348, n. 11.
15. For this edition of Histoire d’un paysan illustrated by Schuler, see letter 345, n. 5.
16. Emile Zola, Ed. Manet, étude biographique et critique. This study of Edouard Manet in several dozen pages appeared in January 1867 in the Revue du XIXe Siècle and was published separately in the same year. It was a defence of the artist, a ‘statement’ (procès-verbal) that Zola wrote ‘in honour of truth’ (pour l’honneur de la vérité). See Zola 1966-1970, vol. 12, p. 824.
17. Van Rappard was taken ill in November 1882 and recovered slowly (cf. letters 290 ff.). This is why in the summer of 1883 he took the waters at Soden in Germany; see exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, p. 12.
18. In 1873 Anton Mauve had spent some time at a rest home in Godesberg in Germany; see Engel 1967, pp. 53-54.
19. For Fritz Reuter’s Gedroogde kruiden and the figure of Bräsig, see letters 306, n. 6 and 317, n. 3 respectively. The ‘water art’ passage is in Reuter’s Herinneringen uit mijne leerjaren op het land, in which Bräsig disappears to a spa for some time. ‘When Easter came round, Bräsig travelled to his water art’. He undergoes all manner of water cures and diets to get rid of his gout, but finally loses faith in the treatment. Ed. Leiden 1883, pp. 138-152 (part 1, chapter 8).
20. For this cape and hat, see also letter 351.
21. William Thomas Smedley, A generation ago, in Harper’s Weekly 27 (3 February 1883), pp. 72-73. Ill. 1347 [1347].
[1347]
22. The print meant, Along the shore of the silver streaming Thames, after E.A. Abbey and Alfred Parsons, was on p. 72 of the same issue of Harper’s Weekly. Ill. 470 [470]. The exhibition meant was ‘The Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society’ at the National Academy of Design, reviewed on p. 71 of the magazine. The illustrations are a selection from the catalogue of the exhibition. Ill. 2101 [2101].
[470] [2101]
23. For this request to be allowed to work in the Nederlands Hervormd Oude-mannen-en-vrouwenhuis, see letters 351 and 352.