1. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Gavarni, l’homme et l’oeuvre. Paris 1868 (reprinted several times). This thick biography of Gavarni contains numerous quotations from his letters and diaries. It includes Gavarni’s remarks on such things as the rendering of black tones and his experiments with mixed techniques, which combined drawing, watercolour and gouache. Cf. Van Uitert 1993, p. 135.

2. The remark about the English writers William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens is based on a passage from Gavarni, l’homme et l’oeuvre, which states that Thackeray ‘found Gavarni slumped beside the corner of an enormous coal fire, his eyes red and bleary from the fatigue of working at night, scarcely responding to his overtures and like a man far away from what is said to him. Thackeray invited him to dine, Gavarni in turn invited him for the following day, in so doing wounding the gentleman who, in his future relations with the artist, maintained his reserve. More or less the same thing happened with Dickens, whom the misanthrope kept at a distance with his coldness’ (trouvait Gavarni affaissé au coin d’un énorme feu de charbon de terre, les yeux rouges et larmoyants de la fatigue du travail nocturne, répondant à peine à ses avances et comme un homme loin de ce qu’on lui dit. Thackeray l’invitait à dîner, Gavarni le contre-invitait pour le lendemain, blessant par ce procédé le gentleman qui, dans ses rapports futurs avec l’artiste, se tint sur la réserve. Cela se passait à peu près de même avec Dickens, que le misanthrope tenait à l’écart par sa froideur) (Goncourt 1873, pp. 310-311).

3. The book quotes a letter written by Gavarni to an Englishman, Ward, in which Gavarni says that he wanted to send one of his works to a few people, one of whom was Dickens. Van Gogh apparently interpreted this as a conciliatory gesture; see Goncourt 1873, p. 329.

4. Thackeray spoke slightingly of Honoré de Balzac several times in his writings. See W.C.D. Pacey, ‘Balzac and Thackeray’, Modern Language Review 36 (1941), pp. 213-224, espec. p. 214.

5. In June Van Rappard had spent about twelve days in Etten (see letter 168).

6. Van Gogh recites a similar list of studies in letter 172.

7. Van Gogh did in fact send sketches to Van Rappard (see letter 176, nn. 4 and 7).

8. Georges Karl Robert, pseudonym of Mathieu Meusnier, wrote Le fusain sans maitre. Traité pratique et complet sur l’étude du paysage au fusain. Suivi de leçons réproduites par l’héliogravure de la maison Goupil & Cie d’après Allongé. 4th ed. Paris 1879 (editions also appeared in 1874 and 1881). It is a concise manual intended for private study. Cf. cat. Amsterdam 1996, p. 29 (n. 35). For Allongé, see also letter 159, n. 9.

a. Meaning: ‘niet in Etten zou blijven’ ([if I were] not to stay in Etten).

9. This could be an allusion to the fact that Van Gogh had fallen in love with Kee Vos. See letter 179.

10. This is Leursestraatje, or Leurseweg; the road and the pollard willows appear on the map that Vincent and his brother Cor made, which is appended to letter 145.

11. This sepia drawing by Van Rappard is not known.

12. Three drawings of pollard willows have survived from Van Gogh’s Etten period: Small house on a road with pollard willows (F 900 / JH 47), Road with pollard willows and man with a broom (F 1678 / JH 46) and Pollard willow (F 995 / JH 56). The drawing on which the sketch in this letter is based is no longer extant.