1. The exhibition Les cent chefs d’oeuvre at Galerie Georges Petit. At the beginning of the month Vincent had asked Theo to give him a description. See letter 358, n. 1.

2. There were four works by Jules Dupré, thirteen by Rousseau and nine by Troyon. See Cent chefs-d’oeuvre des collections parisiennes. Paris 1883.

3. Which particular painting of a municipal pasture by Constant Troyon Van Gogh has in mind here is impossible to say.

4. Jules Dupré, Autumn, c. 1865 (The Hague, The Mesdag Collection). Ill. 1588 . The canvas measures 106.5 x 93.5 cm. Van Gogh had seen the painting in the summer of 1882 at the Academy of Fine Art in The Hague (November): see letter 246, n. 15.

5. This remark by Israëls is quoted again in letter 483.

6. For Jacob van Ruisdael’s The bush, see letter 34, n. 4.

7. Théodore Rousseau, The forest of Fontainebleau: Morning (Landscape, with cattle drinking), c. 1850 (London, The Wallace Collection). Ill. 404 . The work was shown at the Paris Salon under the title Lisière de forêt; effet de matin. The 1855 lithograph (in reverse) by Jules Joseph Augustin Laurens after this work is in a Scrapbook in the estate (t*1487, 17). Ill. 2113 .

8. Théodore Rousseau, Sortie de fôret à Fontainebleau, soleil couchant (The edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, at sunset), c. 1849 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 405 .

9. This idea accords with the naturalistic approach to art as formulated by Zola. In Mes haines he defined a good work of art as: ‘A work of art is a corner of creation seen through a temperament’ (Une oeuvre d’art est un coin de la création vu à travers un tempérament). See Zola 1966-1970, vol. 10, p. 38. Cited again in letters 492 and 643.

10. For this dictum by Bacon, see letter 152, n. 10.

a. Up to this point the sentence should be read as: ‘’t Dramatisch effect van die schilderijen is iets dat de uitspraak ‘un coin [etc.]’ doet begrijpen, en dat tevens doet begrijpen dat het principe van ‘un homme ajouté à la nature’ inmiddels al meer dan iets anders wordt vereist [= behoort] in de moderne kunst.’ (The dramatic effect of these paintings is something that makes the statement ‘un coin [etc.]’ understandable, and that also makes it understandable that the principle of ‘un homme ajouté à la nature’ is now demanded [= belongs] in modern art more than anything else).

11. The neo-Gothic Gallery built by King William ii to his own design in 1840 was pulled down in July 1883. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1990, p. 45.

12. Vincent had written to Theo about Van der Velden in letter 337.

13. This painting by Van der Weele has not been traced.

14. The watercolour of a corn field is not known; the watercolour with part of a potato field may be the same as the one mentioned in letter 360, Potato field in the dunes (F 1037 / JH 390).

15. These (evidently small) landscape drawings are not known.

16. The composition of the first letter sketch, Weed burners (F - / JH 376), matches that of the watercolour with the same title, F 1035a / JH 375, and of the lithograph F 1660 / JH 377 . There is no known work with the composition of the second sketch, Three people returning from the potato field (F - / JH 378).

17. Theo’s visit was to take place on 17 August (see letter 373); as in the previous summer he travelled back and forth to The Hague from Nuenen.

18. Van Gogh knew the illustration of Blommers’ November from the Catalogue illustré du Salon: see letter 357, n. 6.

19. Van Gogh had earlier intended to depict the Nuenen graveyard, which he did not know from personal observation: see letter 259, n. 6.

20. Breitner had his studio in Juffrouw Idastraat: see letter 204, n. 7. From September 1882 he taught at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Art and Technical Science – from that date he probably lived at Aert van Nesstraat 34 in Rotterdam. See Breitner brieven 1970, p. 39 and cf. letter 277.

21. Daniel Urrabieta Vierge provided numerous contributions to L’Illustration and Le Monde Illustré.

22. Van Gogh probably means Breitner’s Huzarencharge (Charge of the hussars, also known as De charge or Cavalerie), c. 1882-1884 (The Hague, Kunstmuseum). Ill. 635 . It measures 100 x 300 cm.

23. This depiction of a drunkard remained unfinished, as is apparent from a letter from Breitner to Jan Pieter Veth of 1901. See Hefting 1970, pp. 56, 136, and Brieven Breitner 1970, pp. 28, 72.

24. This flower market remained unfinished; see letter 207, n. 5.

25. Among Jules Gabriel Verne’s travel novels there is one in which members of a society of ex-cannoneers have themselves transported to the moon by cannonball. The novel is in two volumes: De la terre à la lune (1865) and Autour de la lune (1869). The fact that Van Gogh uses the word ‘wonderreizigers’ (miraculous travellers) may be an indication that he had read Verne in Dutch; in the series Wonderreizen van Jules Verne the two volumes were published as one book entitled De reis om de maan in 28 dagen en 12 uren (1876).

26. Breitner was in the Municipal Hospital in The Hague from March to June 1882; Van Gogh was admitted in June 1882. Both were treated for gonorrhoea. See letters 214, n. 6 and 237, nn. 1 and 4.

27. It cannot be said for certain which watercolour study of birches in the dunes this is.

28. It is not clear which work Van Gogh means here. Van der Weele owned several paintings and watercolours by Breitner, dated before or in 1883.

29. It is not clear which work this is. Van der Weele had at least two portraits that are possible candidates, namely Jongensportret (Portrait of a boy) and Portret van een dame (Portrait of a lady). See Hefting 1970, cat. nos. 5, 55.

30. No information has been found about a portrait of Van der Weele by Breitner.

31. The stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann, in which artistic calling and the influence of demonic elements on everyday life play an important part, were translated by Xavier Marmier as Contes fantastiques (1843). This translation was reprinted many times (including in the Oeuvres complètes).

32. For Emile Wauters, The painter Hugo van der Goes in the red cloister , which depicts the mentally disturbed fifteenth-century painter, see letter 11, n. 8.

33. ‘Cabinet format’ is 16 x 11 cm and is used mainly for portrait photographs.

34. At least two photographers in The Hague are known to have photographed works of art in their studio. Maurits Verveer, one of the best known portrait photographers, had his studio at Zeestraat 52 from 1863; he moved in artistic circles and was a member of Pulchri. The other, the landscape painter Willem Frederik Vinkenbos, had his premises at De Riemerstraat 111. See Hans Rooseboom and Steven Wachlin, ‘Maurits Verveer’, in I.Th. Leijerzapf (ed.), Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse fotografie. Alphen aan den Rijn 1999 and GAH, Adresboek 1883.

35. Sower (F 1035 / JH 374 ) and Peat diggers in the dunes (F 1031 / JH 363 ). Van Gogh was also to have Potato grubbers (F 1034 / JH 372 ) photographed. See letter 362, n. 7.

36. Since early March 1882 relations between Van Gogh and Mauve had deteriorated because he was living with Sien; see letters 209 ff.

37. In his day Charles Louis Philippe Zilcken was best known as an etcher. See for his etchings: A. Pit, Catalogue descriptif des eaux-fortes de Ph. Zilcken, mentionnant 633 pièces. Amsterdam 1918.

38. Vincent reported to Theo that he had written to Uncle Cor on 3 June 1883: see letter 349. The ‘croquis’ were done after Peat diggers in the dunes (F 1031 / JH 363 ) and after the unknown drawing of ‘a team of workmen labouring’ (see also letters 348 and 350). The second croquis is probably The sandpit at Dekkersduin near The Hague (F 1029 / JH 366 ).

39. Vincent had written to Theo about his visit to H.G. Tersteeg in letter 356 of 22 June 1883.

40. Night is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo that forms part of the tomb of Guiliano de Medici in Florence, which was made between 1526 and 1531. The work was illustrated in 1876 in Gazette des Beaux-Arts in the engraving La nuit by Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart (no. 13, 2nd series ((1876)), p. 97) and described in an article by Eugène Guillaume (p. 90). Ill. 1155 . Van Gogh had looked at volumes of this periodical in March 1878 in Uncle Cor’s library (see letter 142).

41. Van Gogh had mentioned Daumier’s The physiology of the drinker – The four ages earlier: see letter 267, n. 33. But cf. also Daumier’s lithograph L’ivrogne (The drunkard), 1834. Ill. 53 .

42. For Millet’s The two diggers , see letter 142, n. 18.

43. For Millet’s The large shepherdess seated , see letter 216, n. 2.