1. See for St Nicholas: letter 59, n. 1. The presents (‘even for Vincent’) arrived in Nuenen during the afternoon of 5 December (FR b2263).

2. Although there was talk in letter 469 of Margot’s coming back from Utrecht at around this time, she was still not home with her three sisters on 9 December (FR b2263). In fact she did not return to Nuenen until March 1885. See for these sisters: letter 457, n. 2.

3. This ‘brief line’ must have been the unknown letter that is mentioned in letter 455. Van Gogh refers to it again later in the letter.

4. This ‘barricade’ metaphor was introduced in letters 461-465.

5. See for the carpenter Theodorus de Vries: letter 432, n. 13. These payments were not recorded in his account book (Nuenen, Internationaal Van Gogharchief).

a. Means: ‘aangezien’ (since).

6. The French artist Alphonse Stengelin worked in Drenthe during the summer from 1879 to 1914. He usually stayed in Café Kuiper in Hooghalen, a village between Assen and Beilen. He spent the rest of the year in his studio in Ecully, near Lyon. See exhib. cat. Assen 1997, pp. 11, 66-67.

7. This postscript was written in the margin of p. 1 of the letter, probably after Van Gogh had considered that the letter as written was finished. Later he added a fourth sheet (ll. 300-381).

8. We have no knowledge of Van Gogh’s being ill at this time – there is nothing about any physical indisposition in the correspondence. It could, however, be a reference to his mental state, which Mr van Gogh described as ‘not normal’ not once but twice during this period (FR b2257 and FR b2267). If this is what this remark means, it could be a recognition of the problem, albeit an indirect one.

9. A reference to the argument in August 1884, when Theo came to Nuenen; it also links in with the ‘brief line’ earlier in the letter (see n. 3 above). On the quarrel: letter 455.