1. Van Gogh usually received 150 francs a month in three instalments. He had made an issue of his request for money because he was still due 100 francs for March.

2. Van Gogh added the sentence ‘without ... other’ (‘zonder ... mag’) later.

a. Read: ‘Houdt in evenwicht’ (balances).

3. Theo must have been upset by the passage about Braat in letter 438.

4. Van Gogh worked in Paris from October to December 1874 and from May 1875 to April 1876.

5. Behind the hedgerows (F 1129 / JH 461 ).

6. The kingfisher (F 1135 / JH 468 ).

7. Probably the following three: Parsonage garden (F 1133 / JH 485) – this was in Van Rappard’s estate; Winter garden (F 1128 / JH 466 ) and Parsonage garden (F 1130 / JH 465 ).

8. Weaver and a spinning wheel (F 29 / JH 471 ); we know from letter 445 that Van Gogh embarked on this work in the winter and was still working on it.

9. The old church tower at Nuenen with a ploughman (F 34/ JH 459 ).

10. This painting of a view of a village is not known. The little village may have been Son or Breugel, about which Van Gogh had previously written enthusiastically (letter 439).

11. This refers to letter 438.

12. Van Gogh mentioned his plan of trying to sell his work in Antwerp in letter 432.

13. Van Gogh sketched a plan showing how wretchedly the studio was situated amidst the cesspit, the privy, the coalhole and the drain. Cf. Ill. 2310 .

14. Van Rappard went to Paris in October 1879 and took lessons in the studio of Jean Léon Gérôme. It was then that he met Theo. See exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, p. 11.