1. The following shipments sent by Van Gogh to his uncle are known from the correspondence: 12 pen-and-ink drawings (sent in March 1882, see letters 210 ff.); 7 townscapes of The Hague (sent in May 1882; see letters 214 ff. and 235); 2 sketches of sand diggers in the dunes (sent in June 1883; see letter 350); and ‘more than 20’ studies (sent in September 1883; see letter 380).

2. Expression, referring to Exod. 21:24.

a. Read: ‘and when I think that I’ (‘I think’ conflated from l. 98).

3. The lodging-house ’t Scheepje was in De Lange Buren, also known as Lange Buurtstraat (now Commandeurstraat 31) in West-Terschelling. See Suzanne Boer, ‘Anthon van Rappard op Terschelling’, Schylge myn lântse 13 (1992), NS, pp. 86-88.

4. We do not know exactly which painted ‘studies’ of the moor are referred to here. It is possible that Cottages (F 17 / JH 395

) was one of them, since Van Gogh sent Theo three paintings a few days later and this may have been among them (cf. letter 389).

5. It is not possible to determine exactly which watercolours are meant here. Six watercolours from this period are known: Peat bog (F 1094 / JH 398); Landscape with a stack of peat and farmhouses (F 1099 / JH 399); Heath with a wheelbarrow (F 1100 / JH 400); Landscape with a farmhouse (F 1101 / JH 401); Farmhouse (F 1102 / JH 402) and Group of farmhouses (F 1103 / JH 403).

6. It is not possible to determine exactly which pen-and-ink drawings are meant here. Farmhouse at night (F 1097 / JH 418

) and Landscape in Drenthe (F 1104 / JH 424) are both candidates.

7. Sien’s mother was registered as living at Korte Bagijnestraat 33 in The Hague.

9. Nana, the eponymous protagonist of Emile Zola’s novel Nana of 1880, is the type that Van Gogh describes as ‘full-blooded and sensual’ (words, incidentally, that he added later): this femme fatale seduces men of the highest rank, gets them wholly in her power and ruins them.

10. Pierre Joseph Proudhon wrote this in his eleventh study De la justice dans la Révolution et dans l’église, titled ‘Amour et mariage’ (Love and marriage). See Oeuvres complètes. Ed. C. Bouglé et H. Moysset. Paris 1935, p. 207. Van Gogh will have known the quote through Michelet, who cited it both in La femme and in L’amour; in La femme with an attribution to Proudhon (Michelet 1863, p. 196; Michelet, L’amour, p. 268).

b. Read: ‘Malgré’.

11. This saying is taken from De Goncourt’s Gavarni, l’homme et l’oeuvre. It occurs in a paragraph dealing with Gavarni’s many amorous adventures: ‘However, he could not always limit himself to these delightful preludes, he was sometimes compelled to go further, and he once made the remark that attachments are sometimes a nuisance. But he was so much in the habit of being enveloped in them, of living within their caress and their pleasant agitation, they had become so necessary to the tenor of his life, that it seemed to him, when one of them was no longer there, “that something was dying within him.” Straightaway, he made haste to replace it’. (Toutefois, il ne pouvait pas se tenir toujours à ces jolis préludes, on le forçait souvent à aller plus loin, et il lui arrivait de faire la remarque que les affections sont parfois gênantes. Mais il avait tellement l’habitude d’en être enveloppé, de vivre dans leur caresse et leur aimable agitation, elles étaient devenues si nécessaires au sentiment de sa vie, qu’il lui semblait, quand l’une venait à lui manquer, “que quelque chose se mourait en lui.” Vite, il se dépêchait de la remplacer). See Goncourt 1873, pp. 221-222.

12. Taken from the last sentence of Michelet, L’amour (p. 418). In his ‘Notes et éclaircissements’ Michelet says that the quotation is by Etienne de Sénancour (p. 445).

13. Van Gogh bases this on Michelet’s ‘Every woman, at every age, if she loves and if she is kind, gives a man the moment of the infinite. More than the infinite of the moment’ (Toute, à tout âge, si elle aime et si elle est bonne, donne à l’homme le moment de l’infini. Plus que l’infini du moment), likewise from L’amour, and quoted previously in letter 193.

14. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth (c. 1606-1607) the unscrupulous Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to murder King Duncan of Scotland so that he will become king. At the end of the play she loses her reason and roams through the palace in a frenzy, in the belief that her hands are covered in blood.

16. Since Béranger is mentioned after this, it is probably an allusion to the poem ‘Les deux soeurs de charité’ (The two sisters of charity) by Pierre Jean de Béranger, from which Van Gogh quoted in letter 110. The theme of the poem, in which both a nun and a woman who has given physical love to many men gain admittance to the hereafter, is that there is more than one form of charity.

17. Saying, biblical; see Matt. 19:30; Mark 10:31 and Luke 13:30.

18. We know from letter 93 that in any event Van Gogh visited the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris in the summer or autumn of 1875. Béranger’s mistress, whom he called Lisette in his verse, was Nicole Françoise Judith Frère. Their graves are indeed close together in the 28th division of the cemetery, under nos. 252 and 657. See Dictionnaire de biographie française. Paris 1951, vol. 5, col. 1215.

19. As a young man Corot, who never married, had various relationships about which little is known. The woman most often mentioned in this context is Anna Saint-Laurent. See Germain Bazin, Corot. 2nd ed. Paris 1951, pp. 17-18. Cf. also Dumesnil 1875, p. 14.

20. Corot was known as a kind, generous person; in the 1860s, for instance, he was among the friends who were instrumental in buying a house for Daumier, who was almost blind. Cf. letter 694.

21. See for this reference to Charles Degroux: letter 211.

22. Taken from Victor Hugo, Quatre-vingt-treize, part 3, book 2, chapter 7: ‘The friendship was between the two men, but the hatred was between the two principles; it was like a soul cut in two, and shared; Gauvain, in fact, had received half of Cimourdain’s soul, but the gentle half. It seemed that Gauvain had had the white side and that Cimourdain had kept for himself what one might call the black side.’ (L’amitié était entre les deux hommes, mais la haine était entre les deux principes; c’était comme une âme coupée en deux, et partagée; Gauvain, en effet, avait reçu une moitié de l’âme de Cimourdain, mais la moitié douce. Il semblait que Gauvain avait eu le rayon blanc, et que Cimourdain avait gardé pour lui ce qu’on pourrait appeler le rayon noir). See Hugo 1965, p. 228. Van Gogh repeats the expression in letters 400, 401, 403 and 415.

23. See for this expression: letter 143, n. 5.

24. Theo was having problems in – or because of – his relationship with Marie, but no details of these difficulties are known. His parents were aware of this; from a few passages in the family correspondence it is clear that – in contrast to their attitude to the relationship between Vincent and Sien – they supported Theo. In a letter of 2 August 1883 they sent their regards to Marie (FR 2244) and on 1 October 1883 Mrs van Gogh wrote to Theo: ‘just leave things to time if you encounter difficulties. We are looking forward to hearing from you when you write how things are with Marie. Be sensible, dear Theo, and may you be as happy as our hearts wish for you’ (FR b2245). The problems obviously continued for some time, since on 30 November she wrote: ‘So Maria’s Papa still doesn’t seem to be calm. With a view to what might happen it is cautious of you not to rush. How I should like to meet your acquaintances some time’, and: ‘Goodbye, dear Theo, give Marie our regards when you write to her’ (FR b2247).