1. Theo had given Milliet a package of prints to take to Vincent; see letter 685. The Japanese prints included The Matsumotorō theatre in the Tokyo pleasure district and probably also Geishas in a landscape: see letter 685, n. 2.

2. These Daumiers probably included the lithograph Emotions de chasse (Emotions of the hunt) from Le Charivari of 17 September 1858. It emerges from a letter Gauguin wrote to Schuffenecker on 22 December 1888 that there was an impression of this lithograph in the Yellow House. See Merlhès 1989, pp. 241-243 (ill. on p. 242).

3. The lithograph by Célestin François Nanteuil-Leboeuf after Delacroix’s Pietà is in the Van Goghs’ estate. Ill. 75 . (t*622) It bears the stamp: ‘Les artistes anciens et modernes’. This series of lithographs – Van Gogh writes that they could be bought for 1 franc each – is also mentioned in letters 726, 732 and 798. One of the other Delacroix prints may have been the lithograph The Good Samaritan , see letter 768, n. 22.

4. The (print after) Théodore Géricault is probably The raft of the Medusa . Cf. letter 272, n. 9.

5. See letter 156, n. 1, for Millet’s series The labours of the fields .

6. Paul Edmé Lerat’s etching after Millet’s Sower appeared in the series Recueil d’estampes gravées à l’eau-forte, published by the art dealer Durand-Ruel in 1873-1874. Cf. also letter 156, n. 3.

7. For Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart’s engraving after Meissonier’s The reader , see letter 152, n. 13.

8. This long article by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu appeared on 15 September 1888 in the Revue des Deux Mondes. It is the fifth part of the series ‘La Religion en Russie’, and is subtitled ‘Les Réformateurs. Le comte Léon Tolstoï, ses précurseurs et ses émules.’ See Revue des Deux Mondes 58-3. Paris 1888, vol. 89, pp. 414-443.

9. George Eliot, whose books Van Gogh had read in his youth, believed that orthodox Christianity must be replaced by an ethical religion that would instill in us ‘a more deeply awing sense of responsibility to man, springing from sympathy with the difficulty of the human lot’. See Alan Jacobs, ‘George Eliot: Good without God’, First Things 102 (April 2000), pp. 50-53.

10. Tolstoy’s Ma religion (1885) is mentioned on p. 438 of this article. Van Gogh writes that Tolstoy is searching for ‘what all religions have in common’. The article emphasizes the ideas that Tolstoy borrowed from Russian religious sects, such as the ‘doukhobors’: ‘According to them, the church is the meeting place of all those who walk in the path of light and justice, whatever their religion, whatever the nation to which they belong, Christians, Jews or Muslims’ (Suivant eux, l’église est la réunion de tous ceux qui marchent dans la lumière et la justice, à quelque religion, à quelque nation qu’ils appartiennent, chrétiens, juifs ou musulmans) (p. 420). Tolstoy’s view of the resurrection of the body and the soul is described as follows: ‘The survival of the soul after death is, just like the resurrection of the body, a superstition which goes against the spirit of the gospels’ (La survivance de l’âme à la mort n’est, comme la résurrection des corps, qu’une superstition contraire à l’esprit de l’évangile) (p. 434).

11. For the magazine Le Japon Artistique see letter 637, n. 10. Van Gogh had in any event received the first two issues (May and June 1888), from which he mentions the following illustrations: Study of grass (with the explanation: ‘of the graminae family. Facsimile of a brush sketch. Copied from life the 14th day of the 8th month, in Kokwa’s 2nd year (1845)’ (de la famille des graminées. Fac-similé d’une esquisse au pinceau. Copié d’après nature le 14e jour du 8e mois, dans la 2e année de Kokwa (1845)). Ill. 2251 ; Study of carnations (‘taken from a flower album by (Kawamura) Bumpo (1800)’) (tirée d’un album de fleur par Boumpo (1800)) Ill. 2252 ; and the double page with Crabs in seaweed and Figures in a shower of rain (‘Two compositions taken from the Gouashiki, a series of 3 volumes by Hokusaï signed Taïto, one of several brush names used by Hokusaï’) (Deux compositions tirées du Gouashiki, série de 3 volumes par Hokusaï signée Taïto, l’un des nombreux noms de pinceau adoptés par Hokusaï). Ill. 2253 . See also the print Portrait of Ousoukoumo : letter 768, n. 19.

12. Bernard was probably the target of Van Gogh’s criticism here. He had a predilection for the Italian and German primitives, but Van Gogh wished he could have taken him to the Louvre to show him the greatness of the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century (see letters 632, 649 and 655).

13. See letter 637, n. 16, for Lévy, the manager of one of Bing’s branches.

14. Since it appears from this letter that Van Gogh had read the Revue des Deux Mondes of 15 September 1888 (see n. 8 above), he may have based his comment about Rubens on the article ‘Les maîtres Espagnols et l’art naturaliste’ by S. Jacquemont, particularly the following passage: ‘Surely everyone knows how much more understandable, lifelike and pleasing works of art are really when seen under the skies which saw them come into being? And surely everyone knows that the pure air of Florence or Madrid preserves paint differently from the air of northern climes? ... The incomparable Rubenses are so fresh, and that crowd of Italian, French and Dutch masterpieces, stacked up there as if to facilitate comparisons to be made there and then.’ (Qui ne sait combien les oeuvres d’art sont plus intelligibles, plus vivantes, plus sympathiques, enfin, sous le ciel qui les a vues naître? Et qui ne sait aussi que l’air pur de Florence ou de Madrid conserve autrement la peinture que les climats du Nord? … Aussi frais sont les incomparables Rubens, et cette foule de chefs-d’oeuvre italiens, français, hollandais, amassés là comme pour permettre sur place toutes les comparaisons.) Revue des Deux Mondes 58-3. Paris 1888, vol. 89, pp. 378-413 (quotation on p. 382). Cf. Dorn 1990, p. 554.

15. The origin of this saying has not been traced.

16. By the ‘yellow woman’ Van Gogh could be referring to Monticelli’s Woman at the well (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum), which comes from the family estate. Ill. 307 .

17. Monticelli, Woman with a parasol, undated (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 308 . The work measures 50 x 25 cm.

18. We do not know which painting of lovers by Monticelli Reid had.

19. The article ‘L’amour dans la musique’ by Camille Bellaigue appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes 58-3, pp. 305-347 (see n. 8 above). It discusses the love themes in operas by Gluck, Mozart, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Wagner and others (on pp. 332-339). The book about Wagner, Richard Wagner, musiciens, poètes et philosophes, was by Camille Benoît; see letter 621, n. 7. Van Gogh probably confused the names of the two authors.

20. The aforementioned article (see n. 8 above) said of the ‘inner revolution’ that Tolstoy advocated: ‘The transformation of humanity, he believes, can only come from the inner transformation of man ... Tolstoy’s doctrine is that of a healthy mind. He looks for the eternally dreamt-of promised land within man, rather than beyond him. He feels the impotence of revolutions’ (La transformation de l’humanité, il ne l’espère que de la transformation intérieure de l’homme ... la doctrine de Tolstoï est d’un esprit sain. La terre promise éternellement rêvée, il la cherche au dedans de l’homme plutôt qu’au dehors. Il sent l’impuissance des revolutions) (pp. 434, 439).

21. In his introduction in Le Japon Artistique, Bing wrote about the Japanese artist: ‘he believes that nature contains the primordial elements of all things and, according to him, there exists nothing in creation, be it a lowly blade of grass, that is not worthy of finding its place in the lofty concepts of art’ (il est persuadé que la nature renferme les éléments primordiaux de toutes choses et, suivant lui, il n’existe rien dans la création, fût-ce un infime brin d’herbe, qui ne soit digne de trouver sa place dans les conceptions élevées de l’art). Siegfried Bing, ‘Programme’, Le Japon Artistique 1 (May 1888), p. 7.

22. It is not clear whether Van Gogh is referring to a single artist here. Given the large number of engravers of prints after Velázquez, it is not possible to determine who he might have meant.