1. See letter 348: ‘Well, in front of me I have two blank sheets for new compositions and must set to work on them’.
2. For the first and second versions of the drawing of the dung-heap, see letter 352. Both versions are unknown. Here Van Gogh is referring to the revised, second version.
3. This drawing of the coal yard at Rijnspoor station is not known.
4. Soon afterwards Van Gogh made several studies of figures lifting potatoes: F 1034 / JH 372 [2442] and F 9 / JH 385 [2444]. See letters 357 and 362.
[2442] [2444]
5. A ‘hannekemaaier’ is a grass-mower, an agricultural labourer of German origin.
6. Van Gogh would have bought his stretching frame from one of the two carpenters called Laarman in The Hague in 1883: Dirk Laarman, located at Paveljoensgracht 27a, or Cornelis Johan Laarman, at Visschersdijk 41 (close to the Grote kerk, now Torenstraat). Paveljoensgracht was nearest to Schenkweg, where Van Gogh lived (SAAm, Adresboeken 1882-1883).
For the nature and purpose of the stretching frames, see letters 346 and 348.
7. This phrasing is derived from a quotation from Hugo’s Les misérables that Van Gogh cited in letter 397, n. 4.
8. Van Gogh had had a cape at his disposal since the beginning of June; see letter 351.
9. This drawing of a woman in a cape with a dustbin is not known.
10. The two studies of a woman in a Scheveningen cape with a wheelbarrow are not known.
11. For Van Gogh’s stay in the Municipal Hospital in June 1882, see letters 237 ff.
12. This painted study of the coal yard at Rijnspoor station (of 1882) is not known.
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