1. This phrasing shows that Theo visited his parents before going on to The Hague. So Vincent would have sent this letter to Etten. Theo’s visit of a day or two to The Hague must have taken place in the period 2-4 August; he spent at least one night there and left the city on Friday, 4 August at the latest (see letter 253).

2. The ideas about colour that Van Gogh expounds in the rest of this letter are very similar to what Cassagne says in the chapter ‘Les couleurs’ in Traité d’aquarelle about colours, mixing colours, intensity and tonal values: ‘There are three basic colours: red, yellow and blue. These three colours are all that are needed to be able to represent nature. However, it is essential that the painter adds black to them ... Black may thus be considered, in the variety of its shades, as the basis of all the colorations nature presents ... By mixing black with the three primary colours, we obtain the following broken tones: with blue, blue grey; with red, red grey; with yellow, yellow grey. If we add red to blue grey, we will have purplish grey, thus less cold. If we add yellow to blue grey, we will have a warmer grey ... Now, nature never offers anything but an infinite variety of these greys, and the four colours that we call essential will always be able to render them’. (Il y a trois couleurs fondamentales: le rouge, le jaune et le bleu. Il suffit de ces trois couleurs pour pouvoir représenter la nature. Toutefois, il est indispensable que le peintre y joigne le noir ... Le noir peut donc être considéré, dans la variété de ses dégradations, comme la base de toutes les colorations que présente la nature ... Par le mélange du noir avec les trois couleurs primitives, on obtient les tons rompus suivants: Avec le bleu, le gris bleu; Avec le rouge, le gris rouge; Avec le jaune, le gris jaune. Si au gris bleu nous ajoutons le rouge, nous aurons le gris violacé, par conséquent moins froid. Si au gris bleu nous ajoutons le jaune, nous aurons un gris plus chaud ... Or, la nature n’offre jamais autre chose qu’une variété infinie de ces gris, et les quatre couleurs que nous appellerons essentielles pourront toujours les donner). Cassagne 1875, pp. 64-74 (quotations on pp. 64, 72).

3. Cassagne speaks of ‘strength of tone’ (la puissance de ton) and discusses this aspect in relation to the depiction of a tree. Cassagne 1875, p. 102.

4. Cassagne too complained about the number of ready-made colours on the market: ‘Colour-makers in general pretend not to understand this law of coloration, and make up an innumerable quantity of tones that are usually superfluous and even an encumbrance’ (Les fabricants de couleurs feignent, en général, de ne pas comprendre cette loi de la coloration et composent une quantité innombrable de tons qui, le plus souvent, sont superflus et même embarrassants). Cassagne 1875, p. 64.

5. In Van Gogh’s estate there is no work (or reproduction of a work) by Willem Roelofs. The description is too general for the pen sketch to be identified.

6. For Millet’s The large shepherdess seated , see letter 216, n. 2.

7. Adriaen van Ostade and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

8. Theo knew two versions of Sorrow; see letters 216 and 222.

9. Pollard willow (F 947 / JH 164 ), after which the letter sketch with the same title (F - / JH 165) was done.

a. Means: ‘sakkerloot’, a corruption of ‘sacristie’ (sacristy).

10. Uncle Vincent and Aunt Cornelie, who lived in Princenhage.

11. Cf. for a similar drawing from the Etten period – April-December 1881 – Landscape with a hut (F 842 / JH 5). Van Gogh’s remark implies that he had resumed work on an existing drawing after a relatively long break. Het Heike (St. Willibrorddorp) lies about 3 km south-west of Etten.