1. The enclosed letter from Mr and Mrs van Gogh is no longer extant.

2. Drawings similar to letter sketch A are not known.

3. This drawing of a pollard willow is not known.

4. Because the letter closes with a sketch of a digger (letter sketch C), Van Gogh must be referring to the corresponding drawing: Digger (F 866 / JH 54 ). See cat. Amsterdam 1996, pp. 96-98, cat. no. 21.

5. There are no known drawings of basket-makers.

6. Jacques Michel Paillard was a paint dealer and manufacturer in Paris; his shop was located at Faubourg St Denis 132 (Almanach du commerce de Paris 1886 and AP, Listes électorales, 9e arrondissement; Calepins du cadastre).

7. There is no known watercolour displaying a composition comparable to that of letter sketch B (Farmhouses on the road with trees).

8. The only drawing made in Etten in which one of these animals occurs is Donkey and cart (F SD1677 / JH 52), though it is uncertain whether that drawing dates from this time. Van Heugten dates the drawing to October 1881 but leaves open the possibility of a dating to c. May 1881 (cat. Amsterdam 1996, pp. 93-95, cat. no. 20).

9. The thicker kind of ‘Ingres paper’, which he had bought at Stam’s (see letter 171).

10. This could refer either to the letter (which Van Gogh enclosed with one from their parents (l. 2) or to the sketches he sent, which Theo subsequently commented upon (cf. letter 175).