1. Hendrik Jacob Eerligh van Gogh, Uncle Jan’s son.

2. Trousers made of a coarse woollen material.

3. The Oosterkerk is located at Wittenburggracht 25, near the Marinewerf (naval dockyard) where Van Gogh lived. He probably saw the panorama he describes from the Kattenburgerbrug.

4. On Sunday, 27 May, the Rev. Gerardus Johannes Vinke preached at 10 a.m. in the Oosterkerk.

5. Numerous reproductions were made of the painting Calvin, 1858 (Paris, Musée de la Vie Romantique) by Ary Scheffer; the known ones include lithographs, wood engravings and an etching. The lithograph by Frederik Hendrik Weissenbruch Dzn., which was published in the Scheffer-album (1859) to accompany the article ‘Calvijn’ by W.J. Hofdijk, was no doubt widely known. Ill. 1825 . See Ewals 1987, pp. 378-379, and exhib. cat. Dordrecht 1990, pp. 36-38, cat. no. 2

6. Gen. 23:17-20.

7. The enclosed drawing is The cave of Machpelah (F Juv. XXX / JH -).Van Gogh wrote on the back of this drawing, between several Latin exercises: ‘Ask Mendes about exam, when it takes place. Would it be possible to attend it?’ The sheet used to be regarded as youthful work. Anita Vriend discovered that it belonged with this letter. See Vriend 1990, and cat. Amsterdam 1996, pp. 64-65, cat. no. 10.

8. At the beginning of 1885 the Rijkswerf was ‘a government enterprise with more than 2,000 employees’. See Ph. M. Bosscher, ‘Van ’s lands werf tot marine-etablissement. Amsterdam als marinebasis’, Marineblad 4 (1965), p. 46.

9. Rembrandt made two etchings of the blind Tobit (B42,1 and B153,1); several copies after the latter are known (Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet). Ill. 1826 and Ill. 1827 . The small engraving Van Gogh bought could have been made after these prints (an impression after the first one is in the family estate) (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. p109) or after The archangel Raphael leaving Tobias, of which Rembrandt had made an etching (B43; Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet). Ill. 1828 .

10. Aunt Mina is W.C.G. Carbentus, the wife of J.P. Stricker; Margreet Meyboom was Paul Stricker’s girlfriend.

11. The farmer Jacobus Lips was married to Maria Leentje Silvius. They had two sons and lived at Bremberg G 10 (RAW).

12. The farmer Willem van Eekelen was married to Maria van Eekelen. They had two daughters and one son. The family lived at Haansberg J 61 (RAW).