1. For this change in Mauve’s attitude, see letter 209. The first signs of tension were mentioned as early as letters 202-203; Van Gogh wrote at the time that it actually made him ill.

a. Meaning: ‘onlangs’ (‘recently’).

2. Cf. the line from the poem ‘My lost youth’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (‘There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak’), quoted in letter 126.

3. Regarding Tersteeg’s visit to Paris, see letter 204.

4. This drawing of a female figure is not known; it appears from letter 222 to be like Sorrow (see letter 216, n. 1).

5. Torn-up Noordstraat with diggers (F 930 a / JH 131 ), drawn from the house at no. 16 where Sien and her mother lived. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1990, pp. 48-49.