1. The lithograph The potato eaters (F 1661 / JH 737 ). We do not know which one Van Rappard had. Cf. Van Heugten and Pabst 1995, pp. 97-98.

a. Read: ‘een reden’ (a reason).

2. Taken from the article ‘Meissonier. A propos de l’exposition récente de ses oeuvres’ by G. Dubufe fils, which was published in La Nouvelle Revue 6, November-December 1884, vol. 31, pp. 116-132. An admirer had written in an ode: ‘You have the knowledge’ (Vous avez la science), whereupon Meissonier wrote him a letter, saying: ‘No! I do not have the knowledge, one never has it!) (Non! je n’ai pas la science, on ne l’a jamais!) (quotation on pp. 131-132). Van Gogh read this periodical in his parents’ house (FR b2268). The expression is repeated in letter 516, n. 6.

3. Van Gogh means that people may claim to have some knowledge, but not that they know everything, have ‘the’ knowledge.

4. That is, during Van Rappard’s stay in Nuenen in October 1884.