To Anthon van Rappard. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 22 October 1882. on or about Sunday, 22 October 1882 Metadata Source status: Original manuscript Location: Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b8349 V/2006 Date: In De brieven 1990 this letter is dated on or about 29 October 1882, which results in a very high density of letters to Van Rappard in the last days of October. Moreover, it leads to the strange situation that, at a time when Van Gogh and Van Rappard are corresponding with great frequency about illustrations, for four weeks (roughly from the end of September to the end of October) no letters pass between them. This is why we have placed the letter a little earlier in October. Van Gogh wrote on or about 23 September that within 14 days (perhaps even sooner) he expected to have a collection of prints in his possession (letter 268, ll. 49-50). The postscript in letter 274 of 22 October shows that by then he had received the new woodcuts, whereas in letter 272 of 15 October he doesnt yet mention them, so we assume that the acquisition came into his hands in the intervening week. The obvious conclusion is that the list of monograms in the present letter was drawn up wholly or partly because of this acquisition. Whether this was done after Sunday, 22 October (and thus before or after letter 274) is impossible to determine, but it must have been around then, so we date the letter to on or about Sunday, 22 October. This earlier date helps to explain the sequence of several passages in the following letters. Van Rappard must have reacted (in a letter that has not survived) to this list and to a remark about the artist Wyllie (ll. 73-78), which Van Gogh in turn comes back to in letter 275 with his question about Wyllie (in l. 167) and with the statement I would have to see the monogram FD or whatever it is to see whether I could decipher it from the way it was done. Van Rappard had evidently written about that monogram after seeing the list in the present letter. Additional: Original [1r:1] Amice Rappard, Toen ik houtsneden begon te verzamelen was het mij dikwijls een verdriet niet te weten door wie ze waren, als ik niet wijs kon worden uit de monogrammen die veel Engelsche teekenaars bezigen. 1 2 To Anthon van Rappard. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 22 October 1882. Ook nu ben ik daarvan nog niet op de hoogte doch weet er toch eenigen en een lijstje daarvan kan mogelijk U van eenig nut zijn ofschoon ge ze misschien allen wel kent. WS Small. A.H. Hopkins cG Charles Green H.H. Herkomer. (er is ook een T. Green)1 MEE Miss Edwin Edwards.3 GP Pinwell. F.B. Buckman W.B.M. Murray6 (ge hebt van hem de F.W. Walker.8 London dustyard)10 F.W.L. Lawson.12 M.W.R. Ridley14 FH Frank Hol J.G. Gilbert16 HF Henry French.19 L.F. Fildes22 IM (IM) Mahoney (Household edition Dickens. zeer mooi)25 RC. Caldecot28 HF Henry Furniss31 EJG Gregory SPH Sidney Hall.33 S.E.W. Waller.36 J.D.W. Watson.39 JB Barnard. JT Teniel AL Lanon CK Charles Keene. EM Morin D.M. Du Maurier. 1 Henry Towneley Green2. 3 Mary Ellen Edwards4. On occasion Van Gogh mixed her up with the etcher mentioned later in the letter, Edwin Edwards5 (see n. 33 below); and indeed he does so here. He may have thought that her surname was Edwin Edwards (cf. letter 317). 6 The estate has 24 prints by William Bazett Murray7: 17 are from The Graphic 1873-1876, six from The Illustrated London News 1873-1881, and one from LUnivers Illustr 1881. 8 Frederick Walker9. 10 Edwin Buckman11, A London dustyard, in The Illustrated London News, 62 (1 March 1873), p. 193. Ill. 658. 12 The estate has four prints after the work of Francis Wilfred Lawson13, all from The Graphic (1870-1877). 14 The estate has 11 prints after the work of Matthew White Ridley15, ten from The Graphic 1871-1876, and one from The Illustrated London News 1872. 16 The estate has one wood engraving after a painting by Sir John Gilbert17. It is an illustration to Evangeline by H.W. Longfellow18, with below it the text: Father of twenty children was he, and more than a hundred / Childrens children rode on his knee, and heard his great watch tick, in The Graphic 11 (6 March 1875), p. 217. 19 Henry French20 provided 20 illustrations for Dickens21s Hard times in the Household Edition. 22 Luke Fildes23 illustrated Dickens24s The mystery of Edwin Drood in the Household Edition: see letter 235, n. 7. 25 James Mahoney26 illustrated Dickens27s Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit and Our mutual friend in the Household Edition: letter 261, n. 9. The estate has a sheet with four Sketches in the West of Ireland, in The Illustrated London News (20 February 1847), p. 116 (t*591). 28 The estate has three prints after the work of Randolph Caldecott29: Whats in a name? and If you dont happen are from Punch (12 December 1879); the source of An innocent offender has not been established. Joseph Swain30 is named as the engraver on the last two. 31 The estate has 26 prints by Harry Furniss32, all from The Illustrated London News 1880-1882 and from Punch 1881. 33 The estate has four prints after the work of Sydney Prior Hall34; two were engraved by Horace Harral35. They are all from The Graphic 1871-1879. 36 The estate has one print after the work of Samuel Edmund Waller37 engraved by Horace Harral38, The last guest, the morning after the party , in The Graphic 12 (25 December 1875), p. 19 (t*378). 39 John Dawson Watson40 worked for both The Illustrated London News and The Graphic in the 1870s. The estate has no prints after or by him. To Anthon van Rappard. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 22 October 1882. 3 JF Jules Ferat41 Dikwijls vindt men echter de namen voluit. Zeker sla ik er over, doch dit is wat me op t oogenblik in de gedachten is. In Harpers Weekly zijn mooie dingen van Howard Pyle, Harper, 43 Rogers, 45 Abbey, 47 Alexander49 o.a.; Caton Woodville, Overend, 51 Nash, 53 Dadd, Gregory, Watson, Staniland, Smythe, 56 Henessy, 58 Emslie60 kent ge zeker ook uit de groote teekeningen van Graphic en London News. [1v:2] Ik heb van Small nog een aardig ding voor U. hij is iemand die verbazend knap is. Ik weet niet of gij kent Scribners magazine en Harpers Monthly review, 62 daar zijn altijd zeer gedistingueerde dingen in. Ik heb daar voorloopig slechts weinig van daar ze nog al duur zijn, en men ze oud haast nooit vindt. In The Brittish workman en The Cottager & artisan, beide pennypapers van het Londensch tractaatgenootschap, zijn soms zeer tamme maar soms toch flinke, mooie dingen.63 41 The estate has five prints after the work of Jules Descartes Ferat42: two from LIllustration (1875 and 1881), one from LUnivers Illustr (1882) and two from a French magazine (source not traced). 43 The fact that William St John Harper44 did illustrations for Harpers Weekly is evident from among other things the prints Tenement-house life in New York Mayor Graces tour of inspection , in Harpers Weekly 25 (15 October 1881), p. 696 and Shutting off the Croton at the Central Park reservoir , in Harpers Weekly 25 (12 November 1881) p. 761; the latter is the only print by Harper in the estate (t*412). 45 Numerous illustrations by William Allen Rogers46 may be found in the magazine, including The presidents room , in Harpers Weekly 25 (23 July 1881), no. 1283, pp. 504-505. The estate has two prints after Rogers: Milk and its adulteration An early morning inspection, in Harpers Weekly 26 (25 March 1882), p. 185. Ill. 1984 (t*362), and several illustrations for Lawing in the North woods, in Harpers Weekly 26 (18 November 1882), p. 725, but these are from a later date than the letter (t*249). 47 Edwin Austin Abbey48 contributed from the 1870s; cf. for example Harpers Weekly 26 (7 January 1882) and see letter 295. The estate has no prints after Abbey. 49 The estate has six prints after John White Alexander50 from Harpers Weekly 25 and 26 (1881-1882): Excursions of five points children and their mothers , Henry W. Longfellow , In the old French market , New Orleans , Peter Cooper , Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thurlow weed (t*320; t*695; t*319; t*700; t*699 and t*704). 51 The estate has eight prints after William H. Overend52, six from The Illustrated London News 1880, and one from 1883; one print, On the right course , is from The Cottager and Artisan (t*366); cf. n. 28 below. 53 The estate has 13 engravings after the work of Joseph Nash Jr54, the son of Joseph Nash55; they are all from The Graphic (1874-1878). 56 Lionel Percy Smythe57 contributed drawings which were wood engraved in The Illustrated London News and in Harpers Weekly in the 1870s. The estate has no prints after Smythe. 58 The estate has 12 prints after the work of William John Hennessy59: 11 from The Graphic (1872-1878) and one from The Illustrated London News (1873). 60 The estate has five prints after the work of Alfred Edward Emslie61: two from The Illustrated London News of 1881, and two from 1883; and an engraving from LUnivers Illustr (1881).