1. Van Gogh wrote this ‘take [them] as they are’ in letter 398.

2. See for this term, taken from Victor Hugo’s Quatre-vingt-treize: letter 388, n. 22.

3. See for this derivation from the book Petites misères de la vie humaine by Old Nick and Grandville: letter 178, n. 6.

4. Cf. Isa. 53:3.

5. This expression is taken from Zola’s essay ‘Proudhon et Courbet’, in which he observes: ‘If you [= Proudhon] ask me what I’ve come to do in this world, I, as an artist, will reply: “I am going to live life to the full”.’ (Si vous [= Proudhon] me demandez ce que je viens faire en ce monde, moi artiste, je vous répondrai: “Je viens vivre tout haut”.) See Zola 1966-1970, vol. 10, p. 39. Van Gogh quotes ‘vivre tout haut’ (‘Live life to the full’) again in letter 415.

6. See for the conscience as a compass: letter 133, n. 12.

7. The form of words that Van Gogh uses strongly suggests that Theo was living with Marie; cf. for example the same expression in letter 348, where Vincent writes that Mr van Gogh disapproved of Vincent’s ‘being with the woman’ (in other words with Sien).

8. Van Gogh is referring to his (failed) attempts – in the period between April 1876 and c. 1879 – to became a teacher and minister.

9. He means the Hague School.

10. Van Gogh probably means Margaretha van Eyck, presumed sister of the Flemish painters Jan and Hubert van Eyck, who according to tradition was a miniaturist. Jan van Eyck’s wife had the same forename, but she is not known to have been an artist. See Ter liefde der const. Uit het Schilder-Boeck (1604) van Karel van Mander. Ed. W. Waterschoot. Leiden 1983, pp. 44, 55, 66.

11. This idea, that a thought alone is not enough but has to lead to ‘action’, could be derived from Carlyle’s Sartor resartus: see letter 274, n. 11.

12. See for this expression of Millet’s: letter 210, n. 6.

13. For this quotation from Millet in Sensier, La vie et l’oeuvre de J.F. Millet see letter 210, n. 5.

14. We have not discovered the actual phrase ‘quite a royal feeling’ in the work of Thomas Carlyle, including On heroes, hero-worship and the heroic in history, which Van Gogh says he is reading this month (see letter 395). In the first chapter, ‘The hero as divinity’, however, there are numerous references to a ‘noble feeling’ (Carlyle 1993, pp. 11, 14, 26). Moreover, in Oliver Cromwell’s letters and speeches expressions very similar to this occur frequently in the commentaries to the letters and speeches, for example ‘in very royal style’ and ‘right royal in spirit’ (Carlyle 1846, vol. 1, p. 315 and vol. 3, p. 239).

15. From letter 406 it emerges that Van Gogh’s Uncle Vincent had insulted him in these words.

16. Cf. Correggio’s expression ‘anche io’ referred to in letter 214, n. 3.

17. We do not know whether the letter sketch Man pulling a harrow (F - / JH 420) to which Van Gogh refers here derives from another work.

18. This saying by Gustave Doré has not been identified.

19. Probably Jules Breton.

20. This phrase is taken from Hugo’s Les misérables: see letter 397, n. 4.