1. In letter 231 Van Gogh specifies the number: ‘two dozen in a portfolio’. It is not known which drawings he sent.

2. Gen. 3:19. Millet had previously linked this biblical passage to his work as an artist: ‘My regime is work, because all men are fated to bodily pain. Thou shalt live by the sweat of thy brow’ (Mon programme, c’est le travail, car tout homme est voué à la peine du corps. Tu vivras à la sueur de ton front’). See Sensier 1881, pp. 157 (quotation), 302. In March Van Gogh had borrowed this book from Théophile de Bock and read it with great enthusiasm (see letter 210). See also letter 333, n. 4 with regard to this biblical quotation and its connection with Millet.