• Mrs. J. van Gogh-Bonger, Amsterdam
• V.W. van Gogh, Laren
• Van Gogh Museum inv nr F 871

Catalogues raisonnés:

• F871: Faille, Jacob Baart de la (1970) [1928] The Works of Vincent van Gogh. His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, no. 871 .
• JH85 : Jan Hulsker (1980), The Complete Van Gogh, Oxford: Phaidon, no.  85.
  
• See also F869 and F870, as well as the sketches in letter 192.
• Executed in the Hague while on a visit to Anton Mauve (Etten period). It is one of three such watercolors of young women from Scheveningen (a fishing village near The Hague), all illustrated with sketches in letter 192 to his brother Theo 18 December 1881. Vincent was pleased with these watercolors and thought them salable. However he eventually found watercolor too intractable and demanding a medium and, despite the advice of Mauve and others, concentrated instead on figure drawing from life when he set up his studio in The Hague at the start of the following year. (Naifeh & Smith, pp. 257, 267). Of the three watercolors, this was the only one Vincent kept.
• Letters
• Letter 192 to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 18 December 1881. Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. "I’m still going to Mauve’s every day, during the day to paint, in the evenings to draw. Have now painted 5 studies and 2 watercolours, and naturally a few scratches.
  ...
  I still have all kinds of things to tell you which you’ll perhaps be interested in, about the way of working from a model at Etten, but as I already said, I’ll write to you about this later – soon. I’m sending you herewith scratches of the two watercolours. I have every hope of making something saleable within a relatively short time, yes, believe that if necessary it ought to be possible to sell these two. Especially the one in which M. has added some touches. But I’d prefer to keep them myself for a while, the better to remember various things regarding their execution.
  How marvellous watercolour is for expressing space and airiness, allowing the figure to be part of the atmosphere and life to enter it."

• ; Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White (2011) Van Gogh: The Life, Profile Books ISBN: 978-1846680106.