• Oldenzeel Art Gallery, Rotterdam
• J. Hidde Nijland , The Hague [1895-1928]
• Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht [loan Hidde Nijland 1904-1910]
• Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, inv nr 1017-28, cat van Gogh 1970, nr 81

Catalogues raisonnés:

• F998: Faille, Jacob Baart de la (1970) [1928] The Works of Vincent van Gogh. His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, no. 998 .
• JH269 : Jan Hulsker (1980), The Complete Van Gogh, Oxford: Phaidon, no.  269.
  
• The drawing is severely damaged. It was purchased by the Dordrecht art collector J. Hidde Nijland in 1892. Nijland's entire collection of 116 van Gogh drawings was sold in 1928 to the Dutch shipping magnate Anton Kröller, husband of Helene Kröller-Müller, for 100,000 guilders, and became the nucleus of the collection at the Kröller-Müller Museum.
• Vincent says in letter 287 that he made three versions of the subject from two models. The compositionally different F997 is presumed one of these, the other is lost. Both surviving versions were evidently modelled by Zuyderland.
• De La Faille follows the Kröller-Müller Museum in titling it A Man in Sorrow (c.f. the inscription on the reverse noted above). Hulsker titles it Old Man with His Head in His Hands, while the Van Gogh Museum refers to it as At Eternity's Gate in their notes to the letters. Vincent simply refers to the drawing as studies of an old man holding his head in his hands, and in a rare (Hulsker) description of his intent says that he was at pains to make an image of natural piety after Millet.
• Letters
• Letter 286 To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Friday, 24 November 1882. Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. "Today and yesterday I drew two figures of an old man with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I did it of Schuitemaker once [F863] and always kept the drawing, because I wanted to do it better another time. Perhaps I’ll also do a lithograph of it [F1662]. What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine suit with his bald head."
• Letter 287 to Anthon van Rappard. The Hague, Friday, 24 November 1882. Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. "You remember that drawing Worn Out [F863]? In the last few days I’ve done it again no fewer than three times with two models, and will labour on it some more. For the present I have one that will be the subject of a fifth stone, which thus depicts an old working man who sits and ponders with his elbows on his knees and his head (a bald crown this time) in his hands."

• Naifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: the Life, New York: Random House, 2011. ISBN 978-0-375-50748-9, pp. 318-20 ff.