1. It is impossible to say for sure exactly which studies these are – Van Gogh originally referred to ten of them (letter 500). They would have included Study for ‘The potato eaters’ (F 77r / JH 686 ), Gordina de Groot, head (F 140 / JH 745 ), and Head of a woman (Gordina de Groot) (F 85 / JH 693 ). Van Gogh compares the latter, as a type, with F 141 / JH 783 – the painting went, via Theo, to Aurier. See letters 502, 505 and cat. Amsterdam 1999, pp. 132, 135, 239.

2. The code ‘V1’ stands for Vincent 1. The crate contained The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764 ).

3. Anton Kerssemakers recalled how sympathetically Theo had responded at the time: ‘Some days after he sent off that dark painting of the peasants’ supper to his brother in Paris, he comes very animated to tell me that his brother had written very favourably about it; of course he was overjoyed by this: he had written, he said, that when he looked at the painting he could hear the clatter of the sitters’ clogs; well you understand that was grist to his mill’. Letter to Albert Plasschaert. Eindhoven, 27 August 1912 (FR b3038).

4. Vincent also suggested that the frame should be this colour in letter 497.

5. Their sister Anna’s objections were the reason for Vincent’s move out of the parental home. See letter 490, n. 9.