1. Van Gogh probably took the barge along the Verlengde Hoogeveense Vaart to Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord on the afternoon of Tuesday, 2 October. The barge sailed at 13.00 and the trip of around 30 km took about six hours altogether. Van Gogh took a room in Hendrik Scholte’s lodging-house, district E, no. 34. See Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 145-169.

2. We cannot say for certain what these bulrushes were used for; they were sometimes used for roofing, and the seed heads could serve as a filling material for beds. See Dijk and Van der Sluis, 2001, pp. 175-176. Some sources say that the leaves of the bulrush can be used for weaving mats, baskets and chair seats, and are also good for caulking and stopping cracks in barrels and boats because of their ability to swell when wet. Encyclopedia Britannica moreover states: ‘Cattails [bulrushes] have been called the most useful of all wild plants as sources of emergency food. The rootstocks, for example, are the source of an edible starch, the young stems are edible as salad plants or vegetables. Even the immature, still-green flowering spikes can be boiled and eaten like corn on the cob.’

3. Crepe is a thin fabric – usually black – which women wore for mourning clothes and veils. A cap brooch is a casque or clasp made of precious metal worn under a woman’s cap; a cap brooch wound round with crepe can be seen in letter sketch D.

4. Neither of these drawings is known; letter sketch C probably shows one of them (F - / JH 405).

5. Probably Adriaen van Ostade.

6. Van Gogh knew the theories of Lavater and Gall about physiognomy and phrenology via Alexandre Ysabeau, Lavater et Gall. Physiognomonie et phrénologie rendues intelligibles pour tout le monde (Paris 1862). Cf. for the comparison of people with animals: letter 291, n. 7.

7. Song of Sol. 2:2.

8. Three Salon works by Charles-François Daubigny – engraved by Ernest Philippe Boetzel – are known to have appeared in the Album Boetzel; they are Effet de lune (Moonlight effect) (1865), Une mare dans le Morvan (A pond in the Morvan) (1869) and Le pré des Graves; Villerville (The meadow at Graves; Villerville) (1870). Cf. Henriet 1875. In view of the nature of the picture, Effet de lune would seem to be the most likely. Ill. 48 .

9. Reference to the windmills that feature in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s novel Don Quixote. There are numerous illustrations of this episode, among them one by Gustave Doré.

10. This painting is not known. See cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 44.

11. As will be discussed in greater detail in letter 394, there had been tensions between Theo and his employers for some time. In his last letter Theo had raised the idea of emigrating to America for this reason. The problems may have been related to Theo’s very poor sales figures in the preceding months; see exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 35. It would also seem clear that Theo’s employers disapproved of his living with Marie.

12. Volunteer in the service of the Koninklijk Nederlands Indische Leger (Royal Netherlands Indonesian Army (KNIL)); cf. also n. 20 below.

a. Means: ‘will remain here for some time’.

13. Max Liebermann stayed in Zweeloo from June to October 1882; this small village lies approximately six km to the north-west of Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord. While he was there he made several village views and scenes from everyday life, such as Die grosse Bleiche – Die Rasenbleiche (Bleaching field), Het boerenkind (The farmer’s child) and the etching ‘The weavers’. The first work is mentioned in letter 395, n. 10. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1980, Eberle 1995, and Michael F. Zimmermann, ‘“...which dazzle many an eye”: Van Gogh and Max Liebermann’, in Van Gogh Museum Journal. Amsterdam and Zwolle 2002, pp. 90-103.

14. It is possible that Van Gogh meant the so-called ‘straw village’, a number of huts to the south of the de Verlengde Hoogeveensche Vaart, close to the house known as ‘La Paix’. See Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 185, 206.

15. Although Van Gogh moved into Scholte’s in Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord, he kept the lodgings in Hoogeveen as his postal address. Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo on 15 October 1883: ‘he seems to be making distant trips, but still keeps the first house as his address’ (FR b2246).

16. Strictly speaking the lodging-house is in Veenoord, not Nieuw-Amsterdam; for many years it was precisely on the border between the two districts.

17. On Monday, 1 October 1883 Mr van Gogh told Theo: ‘I have written to Vincent and sent him 10 guilders by postal order. If you think he needs more, I can do it, do keep me informed in this regard’.

18. The formulation ‘that painting’ seems to indicate that Vincent is responding here to a description Theo gave. It may have been a work at the Salon – Theo had after all previously written about a Liebermann that hung there – but no painting with a title that would clearly qualify has been found in the catalogue. Cf. exhib. cat. Paris 1883, cat. nos. 1597, 1980, 2077, 2184 and 2254.

19. No painting of a view through a barn door is known.

20. Van Gogh mentions Harderwijk because it was there that volunteers enlisted at the Colonial Recruitment Depot of the Royal Netherlands Indonesian Army (KNIL).

21. Locations have been suggested for several of the letter sketches. Letter sketch A: the little house with the peat walls at top left may have been in Nieuweroord; letter sketch B: the spot where the man on the towpath was drawn, with the Drift Bridge in the background, may have been near Zwinderen; letter sketch F: the sketch of a road with houses and huts on either side could have been made in Nieuw-Amsterdam. See Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 148-152.