1. For Fritz Reuter, Ut mine Festungstid and the passage meant, see letters 306, n. 6 and 317, n. 2.

2. The landlord was M.A. De Zwart.

3. These large windows faced north-west; see the sketch in letter 222.

a. Means: ‘hij is direct en geeft niet makkelijk toe’ (he is direct and does not give in easily).

4. These studies, which are also mentioned in letter 317, are not known.

5. Theo had sent Vincent this description at the beginning of September 1882: see letter 260.

b. Read: ‘fond’ (background).

6. See the two heads sent to Theo in letter 298 and the five in letter 299.

7. In Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) Archdeacon Claude Frollo falls in love with Esmerelda. On his instructions, Quasimodo, the grotesque hunchbacked bell-ringer of Notre-Dame whom he has befriended, kidnaps her. Her rescue is brought about by Phoebus de Chateaupers and she falls in love with him for his bravery when he is in reality something of a rogue. Frollo follows her to a meeting with Phoebus, who is killed. She is sentenced to death for the murder. Quasimodo has become her effective slave due to an act of kindness and takes her to sanctuary in the cathedral. The sad finale involves the arrest of Esmerelda, her hanging and Quasimodo’s wretched misery at the loss of the girl.

8. The passage in Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris reads (book 4, chapter 3): ‘And all that came from Quasimodo. Egypt would have taken him for the god of that temple, the Middle Ages believed he was its demon; he was its soul. So much so that for those who know that Quasimodo existed, Notre-Dame today is barren, inanimate, dead. You can feel that something has disappeared. This immense body is empty; it’s a skeleton; the spirit has left it, you can see where it was, and that’s all. It’s like a skull which still has holes for the eyes, but no longer sight.’ (Et tout cela venait de Quasimodo. L’Egypte l’eût pris pour le dieu de ce temple; le moyen âge l’en croyait le démon; il en était l’âme. A tel point que pour ceux qui savent que Quasimodo a existé, Notre-Dame est aujourd’hui déserte, inanimée, morte. On sent qu’il y a quelque chose de disparu. Ce corps immense est vide; c’est une squelette; l’esprit l’a quitté, on en voit la place, et voilà tout. C’est comme un crâne où il y a encore des trous pour les yeux, mais plus de regard.) See Hugo 1975, pp. 154-155.

9. Van Gogh may mean Albert or Julien de Vriendt.

10. At the time he was living in Paris (1869-1877), Matthijs Maris was inward-looking, depressive and difficult to get on with. He depicted fairy-tale scenes and atmospheric, historical landscapes. Van Gogh compiled an anthology for him, probably between May 1875 and March 1876. See Heijbroek 1975, Pabst 1988, pp. 38-59, and exhib. cat. Mannheim 1987, p. 88.

11. Words spoken by Quasimodo in Victor Hugo’s La Esmeralda, the libretto of an opera based on his great tragic romance, Notre-Dame de Paris (Act 4, scene 2). See Victor Hugo, Oeuvres complètes. Drame. Vol. 4. Paris 1880, p. 61. The lines are also quoted in Blanc, L’Oeuvre complet de Rembrandt, vol. 1, p. 20.