1. De Binkhorst was a polder near to Van Gogh’s house and to the south-west of The Hague in the direction of Rijswijk and Voorburg.

2. Van Gogh means that the composition of the proposed painting would stay the same as in the drawing Potato grubbers (F 1034 / JH 372 ), of which Theo had an idea from a letter sketch in letter 357. In fact the painting (F 9 / JH 385 ) was to have not four figures, but five.

3. Van Gogh had written about discovering this spot in letter 369. For Jacob van Ruisdael’s The bush , see letter 34, n. 4.

4. Van Gogh had written to Van Rappard about this in letter 341. The phrasing here – from which it could be concluded that Vincent is reacting to a comment on the subject by Theo – may indicate that Van Rappard had written to Theo about Vincent’s remark. It is also possible that Van Rappard referred to it in his letter to Vincent, which the latter had sent on to Theo (see letter 355).

5. This biblical reference (Matt. 16:25) was indeed included – in a slightly shorter form – in letter 341.