1. These drawings – of a boy polishing shoes and of Vincent’s studio – are not known.

2. See Gal. 6:9: ‘And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.’ Van Gogh wrote ‘time’ instead of ‘season’.

3. Alfred Sensier, La vie et l’oeuvre de J.F. Millet. Paris 1881. Reading this lengthy work, Van Gogh experienced a shock of recognition which provided him with an example to follow for the rest of his artistic career. Sensier gives a succinct description of Millet’s nature in the introduction: ‘Millet was a melancholy and suffering soul, but he was above all a man with the courage of his convictions; faithful and proud in his religion and his art, he devoted to them all the sweetness of his heart, his repose and even his life, which the harshness of the times made all too short ... His life was that of a wise man, a courageous toiler, a loving father and a devoted friend.’ (Millet était un coeur mélancolique et souffrant, mais il était avant tout un homme fort de ses convictions: fidèle et fier dans sa religion et dans son art, il leur vouait les douceurs de son âme, son repos et jusqu’à sa vie que la dureté des temps n’a que trop abrégée ... Sa vie fut celle d’un sage, d’un travailleur courageux, d’un père aimant et d’un camerade dévoué.) Sensier 1881, p. viii.

The relationship between Sensier and Millet, on the one hand, and that between Vincent and Theo, on the other hand, have several things in common. Sensier provided Millet with financial support, for example (‘Always requests for money’, p. 196), sent him paint (p. 122), helped him to sell his work, and viewed him as an ‘elder brother’ (p. 147). Regarding this book, see Parsons and McWilliam 1984 and exhib. cat. Paris 1998.

4. This remark is based on Millet’s words: ‘Art isn’t a merry jaunt. It’s a battle, a set of grinding gears’ (L’art n’est pas une partie de plaisir. C’est un combat, un engrenage qui broie), quoted in Sensier 1881, p. 101.

5. Quoted in Sensier, La vie et l’oeuvre de J.F. Millet, p. 147. These words of Millet are quoted again in letters 257, 267, 336, 400, 430 and 493.

6. Millet had written this in a letter to Théodore Rousseau (Sensier 1881, p. 148). This utterance is quoted again in letters 400 and 515; Breitner also quoted it in a letter written that same month, on 28 March 1882. See Breitner brieven 1970, p. 31 and Hefting 1970, p. 41. Cf. in this context Van Gogh’s remark, made earlier in the letter: ‘I’m actually a drudge or a draught ox’ (l. 82).

7. Quoted in Sensier 1881, p. 175 and also – in slightly different words – on pp. 210, 244.

8. Six works are known for certain to have belonged to the first series of 12 drawings that Van Gogh made for Uncle Cor: 1. Street scene, ‘Paddemoes’ (F 918 / JH 111

); 2. Bakery in Noordstraat, ‘Geest’ (F 914 / JH 112

), 3. ‘Vleersteeg’ (not known); 4. ‘Vischmarkt’ (not known), mentioned in letter 211; 5. Scheveningseweg (F 920 / JH 113

); 6. Sand diggers in the dunes (F 922 / JH 114

), the last two both mentioned in letter 212.

The rest of the series consisted of six of the following eight drawings, as evidenced by their provenance or internal evidence, including the handwriting on the verso: 1. Bridge near Schenkweg (F 917 / JH 115