1. It is difficult to identify exactly which three watercolours of weavers are referred to here. Several from this period have survived, among them Weaver (F 1107 / JH 445), Weaver (F 1125 / JH 448) and Weaver, with a baby in a highchair (F 1119 / JH 449).

2. Van Rappard’s study of a weaver in Drenthe is not known; there is a surviving drawing of the subject, but it is uncertain whether this was done in Drenthe or in Brabant. See exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, p. 83.

3. This ‘impression’ is not known; it seems unlikely that Van Gogh is referring to the large watercolour Timber sale (F 1113 / JH 438

), since this is too detailed and finished to be an ‘impression’. The drawing, which has not survived, probably served as a model for the watercolour. There had been a timber auction on 31 December 1883. See cat. Amsterdam 1997, pp. 45-48, cat. no. 77. From letter 421 it appears that Van Gogh made several works of a timber sale.

a. Read: ‘Inderdaad, wel degelijk’ (indeed; really); amplifying ‘wensch’ (wish).

4. After ‘something’ Van Gogh crossed out: ‘that would thus be more than just an opinion perhaps’ (‘dat dus meer dan slechts een opinie wou zijn welligt’).

5. After ‘cease’ Van Gogh crossed out: ‘Who’s right and what’s true – who shall say –’ (‘Wie heeft gelijk en wat is waar – wie zal het zeggen –’).

6. The origin of this legend has not been traced.

7. The passage refers to what Taine says about Dickens in Histoire de la littérature anglaise. He observes that the author was not very forthcoming about his personal life, which made it difficult to write his biography. Nonetheless he believes that Dickens was fully entitled to this reticence: ‘One may well be famous, one does not for all that become public property; one is not condemned to confidences; one still belongs to oneself, one may withhold of oneself whatever one deems it proper to withhold.’ (On a beau être illustre, on ne devient pas pour cela la propriété du public; on n’est pas condamné aux confidences; on continue à s’appartenir; on peut réserver de soi ce qu’on juge à propos d’en réserver.) See Taine 1874, vol. 5, p. 4 (‘Dickens’, chapter 1). Van Gogh was familiar with this chapter: see letter 356, n. 6.

8. Van Gogh, who makes Louis-François Français ten years older in the anecdote, is referring to the following tradition: ‘Français was twenty when he met Corot through Buttera, after he had made his first study in the Meudon woods, and when he did not yet know what a neutral tone is.’ (Français avait vingt ans lorsqu’il a connu Corot par l’intermédiaire de Buttera, après qu’il eut fait sa première étude dans les bois de Meudon, et quand il ignorait encore ce que c’est qu’un ton neutre.) See Dumesnil 1875, p. 59.