1. These were probably the small enclosed sketches Man and a woman planting potatoes (F 1225 / JH 729) and Two women working in the fields (F 1228 / JH 730). The first sketch is after Man and a woman planting potatoes (F 129a / JH 727 ) on which Van Gogh worked on 9 April; the study after which the second sketch was made is not known.

2. The letter sketch The potato eaters (F - / JH 735) is based on the painting The potato eaters (F 78 / JH 734 ). The ‘fairly large canvas’ measures 72 x 93 cm.

3. An allusion to ‘Un coin de la nature vu à travers d’un temperament’ in Zola’s Mes haines. See letter 361, n. 9.

a. Means: ‘in omloop’ (in circulation).

4. Gigoux uses the term ‘hommes vaillaints’ to describe the generation of Delacroix, seeking recognition, in Causeries sur les artistes de mon temps (Gigoux 1885, p. 68). Van Gogh refers to this again in letter 515.

5. See for this saying letter 406, n. 10.

6. Van Gogh added ‘or ... vivre’ (of ... vivre) later. This may be an allusion to Zola’s novel La joie de vivre, which he read at about this time. Sund regards the question mark as ‘in keeping with the cynical manner in which Zola applied this standard expression of ebullient hedonism to a disparaging account of human existence as a series of thwarted ambitions and unfulfilled desires.’ See Sund 1992, p. 112.

7. The satirical weekly magazine Le Chat Noir was published from 1882 to 1895 and featured modern arts and literature; it was associated with the cabaret of the same name in Paris’s rue Laval. Each issue was four pages; one or more drawings or prints were reproduced on page three. Van Gogh probably hoped to be considered for this.