1. The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764 ).

2. Van Gogh had already pointed this out about the torsos in letter 502.

3. Van Gogh took this expression from Sensier, La vie et l’oeuvre de J.F. Millet: see letter 495, n. 9.

4. The cottage (F 83 / JH 777 ).

5. This watercolour of a cottage is not known.

6. Sale of building scrap (F 1230 / JH 770 ).

7. It is impossible to establish exactly which 12 painted studies these are. There were in any event some heads among them; Van Gogh had previously written that he had finished seven (letter 505). They probably included Head of a woman (Gordina de Groot) (F 141 / JH 783 ), Head of a woman (F 86 / JH 785 ) (see nn. 10 and 12), and Head of a man (F 163 / JH 687 ). It is not clear whether Head of a woman (F 388r / JH 782 ) was also part of the shipment. See cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 239.

8. Taken, with some discrepancies, from Zola’s Germinal (see Zola 1960-1967, vol. 3, p. 1525).

9. Taken from the opening sentence of Germinal.

10. The terms ‘herscheuse’ and ‘sclôneuse’ (terms for women who worked in the pits) are found in Germinal; Van Gogh also used them in his Borinage period. The description must refer to Head of a woman (F 86 / JH 785 ). See also Sund 1992, p. 98.

11. These are the closing lines of Germinal (see Zola 1960-1967, vol. 3, p. 1591).

12. Head of a woman (Gordina de Groot) (F 141 / JH 783 ); Van Gogh ‘marked’ (signed) this painting in the upper left corner. See also letter 505.

13. This is probably Cottage (F 92a / JH 806) in which the cottage also has two doors. The tree in the foreground does not, however, appear in The cottage (F 83 / JH 777 ).

14. Taken from Germinal (see Zola 1960-1967, vol. 3, pp. 1439-1440). The word ‘Imbeciles’ he wrote in l. 97 is not in the original text, and Van Gogh omitted several lines after ‘révolutionnaires’ (l. 98).

a. Read: ‘datgene waar’ (that which).

15. Léon Augustin Lhermitte, Le mois de Marie à Chartèves, planned for the month of May in the series ‘Les mois rustiques’, was unexpectedly dropped. See letter 502, n. 19.

16. Van Gogh is referring to Paul Mantz’s article ‘Le Salon iv’ about the Salon in Le Temps of 31 May 1885. Mantz writes: ‘Mr Lucas is perhaps an enthusiast’ (M. Lucas est peut-être un enthousiaste); a little later he talks about ‘enthusiastic fervour and luminous architecture’ (des élans enthousiastes et des architectures lumineuses) (p. 1).

17. In ‘Le Salon ii’, published in Le Temps of 17 May 1885, Mantz says at the end of his discussion of Rochegrosse: ‘He preserved that which was best in his art and in ours, a grain of madness’ (Il garderait ce qu’il y a de meilleur dans son art et dans le nôtre, un grain de folie) (p. 2).

18. Mouret and Bourdoncle are characters in Zola’s Au bonheur des dames: Van Gogh contrasted them in letter 464.

19. This quote in Le Temps of 17 May 1885, p. 2.

20. A quotation from Zola’s Au bonheur des dames: see letter 464, n. 12.

21. This inventory was drawn up on 21 May by the notary Abraham Schutjes of Nuenen. Van Gogh relinquished his share of the estate: as it says in the deed, he had ‘withdrawn during the inventorization without giving reason therefor’. See exhib. cat. ’s-Hertogenbosch 1987, pp. 86-89 (quotation on p. 89) and see letters 490, n. 14 and 749, n. 1.

22. We do not know who this was.

23. See for Willemien’s exemplary care of her mother: letter 432.

24. See for Daudet’s L’évangéliste, a novel about hypocrisy and deceit: letter 464, n. 14.

25. The old church tower at Nuenen (‘The peasants’ churchyard’) (F 84 / JH 772 ). This was also enclosed (see letter 507). On the demolition of this tower: De Brouwer 2000.

26. Taken from Gigoux’s Causeries sur les artistes de mon temps: see letter 494, n. 2. Van Gogh formulates this endeavour anew in letter 508.

27. Mantz says in Le Temps of 31 May 1885 (‘Le Salon’): ‘The public perhaps does not know enough about this honest draughtsman, who, changing Mr Ingres’s words somewhat, would freely admit: modelling is the integrity of painting’ (Le public ne connait peut-être pas assez ce dessinateur loyal, qui, changeant quelque chose au mot de M. Ingres, dirait volontiers: Le modelé est la probité de la peinture) (p. 2).

28. Probably an oral survival; the saying has not been found in writing.

29. The lack of response to his work had caused Maris to turn increasingly in on himself; he had become something of a recluse. Cf. Heijbroek 1975.

b. Dutch saying; it means: ‘in gevaarvolle situaties, in nood’ (in dangerous situations, in fear).

c. Means: ‘krachteloos, zonder vuur’ (insipid, without fervour).

30. Previously quoted in the passage from Germinal: see l. 99.

31. The last one was published in ‘Le Salon iv’ as ‘Feuilleton du Temps’ in Le Temps of 31 May 1885; Theo also sent the previous issues of 10 May and 17 May. In his article, Mantz is highly critical of the standard of French painting at the Salon; a few portraits are all that receive his approval. He regrets that the art of portraiture, ‘the sublime art’ (l’art superbe) of Raphael, Holbein, Rembrandt and Velázquez, is not valued at its true worth and is regarded as ‘second-rate art’ (art de second rang) when the medals are awarded.

32. Cornelia van Gogh-Carbentus had been to see Theo. He wrote to his mother: ‘As always, Aunt was very kind to me, she invited me to dine with her in the hotel several times and brought me such nice things’ (FR b901, 19 May 1885).