2. For Theo’s previous visit to his parents and to Vincent in the summer of 1882, see letters 252 ff.

3. Van Gogh evidently did not want to add to his parents’ concern about his future or cause friction. On 2 August 1883 Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo: ‘O, we think of him so much, and in my heart I pity him so. What a difficult life he has chosen’ (FR b2244).

4. Van Gogh means that he wanted to do a painted version of the drawing Potato grubbers (F 1034 / JH 372

), of which he had done a sketch for Theo in letter 357. The result was the painting Potato grubbers (F 9 / JH 385

); see also letter 373.

5. Theo must have suggested to Vincent that he should work somewhere else for a while, following the example of Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, who regularly spent time in the picturesque polder landscape and lake area near Nieuwkoop and Noorden in the middle of the Netherlands.

6. In letter 369 Van Gogh described what he had seen in nature in the country.

7. This was around the end of August 1882; cf. letter 259.

8. Vincent means the drawn heads which he sent to Theo in January 1883 (see letter 300) and to which he referred several times in later letters, such as 301, 305 and 318).

9. For Van der Weele’s painting A misty morning and the silver medal, see letter 327, n. 1.

10. Fisherman on the beach (F 5 / JH 188

) and Scheveningen woman (F 6 / JH 189

). See cat. Otterlo 2003, pp. 34-38.

11. Van Gogh went to the second exhibition of the Koninklijk Genootschap van Nederlandsche Aquarellisten (Royal Society of Dutch Watercolourists), which was held in Fluweelen Burgwal in The Hague. For the exhibition mentioned at the Gothic Room in the summer of 1882, see letter 265, n. 5.

12. Among those exhibiting were ‘Joan F[rans] Berg’ and ‘J. van den Berghe’; the latter, who showed only one work, was probably Willem Jan van den Berghe. Van Gogh speaks of ‘a few drawings’, so he must mean the former, who showed De zeeoogst (Sea harvest) and Strand bij winter (Beach in winter). These drawings have not been traced. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1883, cat. nos. 8-9.

13. Two drawings by Pieter Adrianus Schipperus, Herfst (Autumn) and Winter (Winter), were exhibited. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1883, cat. nos. 80-81.

14. Theo’s salary was made up of a fixed amount of 4,000 francs per year (payable in 12 instalments) and a bonus of 7.5% of the net annual profit of the boulevard Montmartre branch, where he was the manager. He was waiting for his bonus for 1882, which would amount to 7,242 francs. This was about 10% lower than the average bonus he would receive for the years 1882 to 1890. See exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1999, pp. 195 (n. 91), 33 (ill. 30); for the bonuses Theo received from 1882 to 1890, see Account book 2002.