3. Theo, whose trip to Nuenen with Andries Bonger had included a visit to Antwerp, must have talked about Constantin Meunier’s painting Returning from the pit, which was exhibited at the World Exhibition. See exhib. cat. Antwerp 1885, p. 34, cat. no. 252 (De ophaling in eene kolemijn in het land van Luik). This was not the first time Van Gogh mentioned Meunier’s work in connection with Van Rappard’s: see letter 496.

4. This was in Jutphaas, a small town to the south of Utrecht, where Van Rappard’s cousin A.C.P.G. van Rappard owned a brickworks.

5. It is possible that Van Gogh wrote ‘kon’ (could) rather than ‘kan’ (can).

6. W.J. Leurs had moved from number 1 Praktizijnshoek in The Hague to number 5 Molenstraat (GAH, Adresboek 1885).

7. This means that Leurs was offering him two shop windows in which to display his work. As far as we know, there is no surviving contemporary photograph of these premises.

8. This reference is too vague for identifications of specific works.

9. This may be the signed The old tower of Nuenen (F 88 / JH 490

). It cannot have been The old church tower at Nuenen (‘The peasants’ churchyard’) (F 84 / JH 772

), since Theo already had that painting. Cf. cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 158 (n. 17).

10. It is not possible to determine which figure pieces Van Gogh had in mind here. Altogether we know of ten painted figure studies from this period. See cat. Amsterdam 1999, pp. 160-163, cat. no. 29 (esp. n. 3).

11. This ‘second’ was the paint seller Furnée: see letter 523.

12. This painting of ‘women pulling turnips’ is not known. Cf. letter 515.

13. This painting of the wheat harvest is not known. There is a single drawing of the subject: Wheatfield with a reaper and a woman binding sheaves (F 1321 / JH 915).

14. We know of various studies of interiors drawn during this period: Woman by the fireplace (F 1223 / JH 894), Woman by a hearth (F 1222 / JH 895), Woman with a kettle by a hearth (F 1293 / JH 896), Woman shelling peas (F 1214 / JH 702

), Woman by a hearth (F 1218 / JH 701) and Woman by a hearth (F 1288 / JH 797).

15. The crate of paintings intended for the paint supplier Leurs: see letters 527 and 530.

16. It is impossible to say for certain which four studies of women in a potato field Van Gogh is referring to here. He had made the study Two women digging (F 97 / JH 876

) two days earlier, as we learn from letter 528, and Two women digging (F 96 / JH 878

) was most probably also one of this series. Van Gogh may also have counted the watercolour Two women digging (F 1296 / JH 877) as one of them.