1. It emerges from letter 555 that Van Gogh painted a large work of two wrestlers.

2. In the ‘Classical Statues’ class with Vinck: see letter 553, n. 3.

3. See for this painting class: cat. Amsterdam 2001, p. 13.

4. Van Gogh is referring to Guiliam Baix (he was 33), De Craecker (40), Paul Raeymaeckers (35) and Frans Swaenen (38).

5. This ‘head of a child’ is not known.

6. The Dutch artist Jan Derk Huibers had been a student at the Antwerp Academy before 1885.

7. We do not know which former American student this might be.