1. Theo supported his father, his mother, his sister Willemien, Marie and Vincent (see letter 394).

2. This storm happened on 22 August 1882: see letter 259.

a. Read: ‘Brandstof’ (Fuel).

3. Cousin Hendrik van Gogh.

4. The sentence ‘I had a little extra from Pa’ was added by Van Gogh later.

5. Children often tied a string to the back leg of a May beetle, and then sang songs to make the insect fly up. There was every chance that it would die in the process.

6. These studies of seascapes are not known. They were paintings (see letter 367).

7. This small watercolour of a beach scene is not known. Cf. letter 271, n. 1.

8. Van Gogh had written about negotiating a lower price for paint in letter 260.

9. François Alexandre Joseph Léon Bourgeois was a paint dealer. His shop was at 31 rue de Caire in Paris. In 1882 Bourgeois was the owner of a paint factory at 22 passage Tocanier (= 22 rue Claude Tillier). See AP. Listes électorales, 2e Arrondissement; Calepins du cadastre. Illustrated catalogues of his range were available.

10. After this sentence Van Gogh crossed out the following passage: ‘As I write this, something suddenly occurs to me that would be even shorter. I wrote to you that I had helped a young surveyor with drawing. Well, his father is a pharmacist and has a small stock from Paillard. The man is very friendly to me and I would like to speak frankly to him sometime in order to take advantage of the net prices. The net prices would have to be paid in cash, but I would like to start doing that soon no matter what. I believe I shall keep to that plan, which came to me while writing. But have a think about it from your side, because that friend could object to telling me the right net price after all’ (‘Terwijl ik dit schrijf valt mij in eens iets in dat nog korter zou zijn_ Ik heb een jongen landmeter geholpen met teekenen/ schreef ik U. Nu_ diens vader is drogist en heeft een klein depot van Paillard. Die man is voor mij vriendelijk en ik zou wel eens ronduit met hem willen spreken om van de netto prijzen te kunnen profiteeren. De netto prijzen zouden contant moeten betaald worden maar ik zou dat spoedig coûte qui coûte willen beginnen_ Ik geloof ik me bij dat plan zal houden dat zoo onder ’t schrijven me invalt_ Toch_ denk gij er van Uw kant ook nog eens over, want die vriend kon wel obstacles maken om me den juisten netto prijs te zeggen après tout’). Given this crossing out and in view of what follows (ll. 125-127), Van Gogh interrupted the writing of the letter in order to make enquiries.

11. This was Hendrik Jan Furnée (see letter 369, n. 12).

12. Instead of ‘certain persons’, Van Gogh first wrote ‘Tersteeg’.

13. The letter has no ending and is not signed, so it is probably incomplete.