1. Regarding these letters, see Date.

2. Anna van Gogh and Joan van Houten were to be married on 22 August 1878.

3. Aunt Cornelie at Princenhage, the wife of Uncle Vincent, had serious stomach complaints and was undergoing a milk cure (FR b986, b988 and b5342).

4. It is not known to which book about the apostle Paul Van Gogh refers here. See for Eliot’s Silas Marner. The weaver of Raveloe, letter 142, n. 14.

5. For Emile Adélard Breton, Sunday morning in winter , see letter 61, n. 3.

6. Matt. 13:31-35; Mark 4:31-32 and Luke 13:18-19.

7. On Wednesday, 7 August, Anna and Joan van Houten were to register their banns. Vincent was planning to make decorations of greenery. Mr van Gogh reported to Theo: ‘Willem the gardener will bring flowers early in the morning to decorate the drawing room, and Vincent already has plans to make hanging nets etc. for them. He is always hard at work here, in the classroom, in which he is now installed.’ Mrs van Gogh wrote more specifically: ‘Vincent thought of a couple of their initials in greenery, with something around them’ (FR b988, 5 August 1878).

a. Read: ‘gespannen’ (tense).

8. Cf. Rev. 21:5.

9. Mr van Gogh was not convinced of Vincent’s capabilities. A week later he wrote rather sombrely to Theo: ‘I have no illusions about Vincent – often I even fear that we will be disappointed again. And apart from that, there is much, very much, that is still needed. And however much one wishes to lighten the load, there are always all sorts of consequences that add to the load’ (FR b987, 31 July).

10. Willemina Carbentus, J.P. Stricker’s wife.