1. We cannot say for certain which drawing this is. A little later Van Gogh writes that he depicted the figure of the weaver with a few ‘scratches and blotches’; the only surviving small pen-and-ink drawing of a weaver from this period which might possibly fit the bill is Weaver (F 1124 / JH 456); it measures just 9.5 x 13 cm.
a. Means: ‘spooksel’ (apparition).
2. Zemel linked this passage with the ideas of George Eliot and Thomas Carlyle; see Zemel 1997, pp. 62-64.
b. Means: ‘die wanorde, warboel van latten’ (this disorder, confusion of slats).
3. The small sketch Parsonage garden (F 1133 / JH 485); since Van Rappard was familiar with it, we assume that it must have been sent with letter 433. The sketch is after Parsonage garden (F 185 / JH 484).
4. Probably Winter garden (F 1128 / JH 466 [2458]).
[2458]
c. Means: ‘drasland, waterland’ (marshland).
5. This drawing is not known.
6. Pollard birches (F 1240 / JH 469 [2460]).
[2460]
7. Avenue of poplars (F 1239 / JH 464 [2456]).
[2456]
8. ‘Behind the hedgerows’ (F 1129 / JH 461 [2454]).
[2454]
9. The kingfisher (F 1135 / JH 468 [2459]).
[2459]
10. Parsonage garden (F 1130 / JH 465 [2457]).
[2457]
11. Cf. for this recommendation for a grey mount: letter 216, n. 4.
12. Van Gogh used the same metaphor in letter 432.
13. It is not certain which drawings Van Gogh is referring to here. He gave both Parsonage garden in the snow with one figure (F 1127 / JH 426) and Parsonage garden in the snow with three figures (F 1131 / JH 427) a French title (‘Mélancolie’ and ‘Jardin d’hiver’). ‘This suggests that he sent the sheets to Theo in Paris in the hope that they were marketable, or at any rate that they would build up his reputation’. Cat. Amsterdam 1997, p. 38.
14. Johanna Hendrika Amilda van Renesse, an unmarried woman of independent means, lived in De Berg no. 505 (district F, now Beekstraat) in Nuenen (FR b2255 and b2254; and RHC).
15. De Louw was a very common name in Nuenen at that time and several of these De Louws were labourers or farmers. We consider it most likely that Van Gogh was referring here to Johannes de Louw: he lived in the same district F as the Van Goghs, at De Berg no. 499 (RHC).
Van Gogh evidently had contact with him: on the drawing Lamp in front of a window (F 1158v / JH - ) there is a note of an appointment: ‘Monday in a week’s time Louw’. See cat. Amsterdam 1997, pp. 157-158 (n. 3).
top