1. It is impossible to say for sure which pen-and-ink drawings these were. Several are known after paintings of this period, but the dating of the sheets is not certain: Weaver, with a baby in a highchair (F 1118 / JH 452); Weaver (F 1121 / JH 453); and Weaver (F 1122 / JH 454). They are in the Van Gogh Museum collection, so they must have belonged to Theo. See cat. Amsterdam 1997, pp. 49-73.

2. We do not know which watercolours these were.

3. All the poems by François Edouard Joachim Coppée that Van Gogh mentions can be found in the edition Poesies de François Coppée (Paris 1875, reprinted in 1878 and 1880 – referred to hereafter as Coppée 1880). He calls it ‘a little book’; this is consistent with the pocket format of this edition, which measures 16.5 x 10 cm. See also letter 433.

4. An allusion to a remark by Millet in Sensier, La vie et l’oeuvre de J.F. Millet: see letter 210, n. 5.

5. The two poems by Coppée to which Van Gogh refers are: ‘Emigrants’ (Emigrants) and ‘Menuet’ (Minuet), which come from the collections Les humbles and Le cahier rouge respectively. See Coppée 1880, pp. 49-55, 156-157. Watteau was known for his ‘fêtes galantes’.

6. ‘Désir dans le spleen’ (Desire in melancholy), the final poem. See Coppée 1880, pp. 230-232. This poem and the next three come from the collection Le cahier rouge. The most significant differences are:

l. 49 The following two lines are missing: ‘Pas plus que n’a laissé de trace sur la rose / L’ombre du papillon qui vient de l’effleurer.’ (‘No more than on the rose has left a mark / The shadow of the butterly that lately brushed against it.’)

l. 53 femme sérieuse aux pâles paupières ] jeune fille blanche aux paupières (grave woman with pale eyelids ] pure young girl with eyelids)

7. The poem ‘Pour toujours’ (Evermore), in: Coppée 1880, pp. 170-171. Important differences in content are:

ll. 73-74 Underlining not in Coppée

l. 75 amante interrogée ] amant interrogé

l. 77 toujours – ] toujours!” sur les lèvres que j’ai,

Van Gogh did copy the striking layout of the lines: no spaces between the stanzas and an indent after every second line.

8. The poem ‘Douleur bercée’ (Sorrow assuaged), in: Coppée 1880, pp. 198-199. An important difference in content is:

l. 99 coeur ] sein (heart ] breast)

9. ‘Blessure rouverte’ (A wound re-opened), in: Coppée 1880, p. 200.

10. Rembrandt, The Jewish bride, c. 1666 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). Ill. 2119 .

11. E.J.T. Thoré (writing under the pseudonym W. Bürger) described Rembrandt’s Jewish bride at length in Musées de la Hollande; he praised it both for the expression of the figures and for Rembrandt’s virtuoso execution. See Thoré 1858-1860, vol. 2, pp. 7-13. The association between Coppée’s poem and the painting is based on Van Gogh’s intense admiration for both works, not on any similarity in subject or sentiment.

12. The art critic Théophile Gautier wrote about Rembrandt several times; more than once he based his comments on what Thoré had observed about the artist. See H. van der Tuin, ‘Théophile Gautier et Rembrandt’, Revue de Littérature Comparée 34 (1960), pp. 456-464.

13. See for this consignment: letter 429.

14. The poem ‘La première’ (The first one), from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 221-222.

15. Van Gogh also alters this line in letter 433.

16. These words are very like what Van Gogh apparently said on his deathbed: ‘La tristesse durera toujours’ (sorrow will endure forever). Passed down via Du Quesne-Van Gogh 1923, p. 69.

17. The poem ‘Le chien perdu’ (The lost dog), from the collection Ecrit pendant le siège, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 85-86. Substantive differences are:

ll. 225-227 The variants before the bracket are an addition by Van Gogh himself (in the English translation this assertion and the parenthetical remarks).

18. The poem ‘A un souslieutenant’ (To a Second-lieutenant), from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 215-216.

19. The poem ‘Une femme seule’ (A woman alone), from the collection Les humbles, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 56-60. Significant differences in terms of content are:

l. 236 ses anciens ] ces anciens

l. 308 ces traits ] ses traits

l. 330 suis sûr ] suis sur

20. The poem ‘Tristement’ (Sadly), from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 148-149. Significant differences in terms of content are:

l. 298 Il invoque ] Il évoque

Although we cannot rule out the possibility that Van Gogh copied this poem out first (p. [2v:7]) – it is on the inside of the folded sheet and starts in conspicuously painstaking handwriting – in the transcribed text we have preceded it with ‘Une femme seule’, which begins on p. [2v:6]. Because this poem was interrupted at the end of the page, Van Gogh wrote ‘Une femme seule continued’ (‘Une femme seule suite’) at the top of the continuation on p. [2r:8] (l. 306).