• C. Mensink, The Hague
• Sale Amsterdam [F. Muller] 12 November 1912, 60
• Huinck and Scherjon Art Gallery, Ansterdam [1912]
• Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, inv nr 193-12, cat van Gogh 1970, nr 54

• First exhibited 1913 The Hague, 36

Catalogues raisonnés:

• F967: Faille, Jacob Baart de la (1970) [1928] The Works of Vincent van Gogh. His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, no. 967 .
• JH225 : Jan Hulsker (1980), The Complete Van Gogh, Oxford: Phaidon, no.  225.
  
• Compare sketch in letter 270 (front row only).
• The watercolor was executed at a time when Vincent had turned to depicting groups of figures, such as in The State Lottery Office (F970), in the hope of increasing their saleability (Hulsker p. 58). However he found watercolor a too demanding medium and soon abandoned it in favor of his graphic work (Naifeh and Smith p. 313). Hulsker lists other watercolors made in October 1888 as F1038, F982, F1091,and possibly F994. A number of others must have been lost, such as the watercolors sketched in letter 271 and letter 274, and the dozen watercolors of the potato market mentioned in letter 277.
• The church was probably the Bethlehemskerk, since demolished, in the Breedstraat, the 'church of the poor' behind Slijkeinde in the Geest where the mother of Vincent's partner at the time [Sien Hoornink] had her house (F942). Attendance at the church was compulsory for those receiving charity. Hulsker remarks that the huddling of figures in State Lottery was certainly more successful than that in Church Pew, a subject apparently beyond him (Hulsker p. 62). In letter 270 Vincent says that almsmen in that district were known as 'orphan men', and said he had taken on a bald, deaf, old orphan man with white sideboards as a model. This was Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland who went on to feature in dozens of subsequent studies over the following winter months, recognisable from his trademark whiskers as the second figure from the left in the back row in this watercolor.
• Letters
• Letter 270 to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 1 October 1882. Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. "I’m also working on one of a church pew that I saw in a small church in the Geest district where the almsmen go (they’re known here very expressively as ORPHAN men and orphan women). [sketch enclosed (first row only)]"

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