2. A reference to the end of a letter that Jules de Goncourt wrote to Philippe Burty from Trouville on 1 August 1867: ‘A revoir donc. Japonaiserie for ever!’ Quoted in Maîtres et petits maîtres (Burty 1877, p. 274). Van Gogh probably borrowed the book from Kerssemakers: see letter 542, n. 10.

3. This is the first time that Van Gogh writes about his interest in Japanese prints; see for this also letter 587, n. 3. Japanese items had been on display at the World Exhibition that had run in Antwerp until 2 November and the dealers probably took advantage of the interest this had created to start selling Japanese prints.

4. Van Gogh had obviously rented a ‘cubby-hole’ as well as his room; on the floor plan of the house (as it was in 1922) there is a small room on the right at the front of the second floor, next to the main room; this is probably the ‘studio’ Van Gogh refers to. Cf. cat. Amsterdam 2011.

5. The three paintings Van Gogh took with him from Nuenen are: an unknown ‘mill’, Avenue of poplars (F 45 / JH 959

) and Still life with Bible (F 117 / JH 946

) (cf. letter 542, nn. 3 -5); from l. 162 it appears that he must also have taken ‘a few small ones’. It is not possible to say for sure which these were. They probably included some of the following works – although these could equally well have been sent in October (see letter 535, n. 1): Still life with three beer tankards (F 49 / JH 534); Still life with earthenware and bottles (F 53 / JH 538); Basket of apples (F 101 / JH 927); Still life with vegetables and fruit (F 103 / JH 928); Still life with a basket of apples and two pumpkins (F 106 / JH 936); Still life with birds’ nests (F 109r / JH 942); Still life with birds’ nests (F 112 / JH 938); The parsonage at Nuenen (F 182 / JH 948); and Head of a woman (F 388r / JH 782

). See cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 239.

6. The Stadspark in the city centre, which was opened in 1869.

7. Léon Augustin Lhermitte, La récolte des pommes de terre (The potato harvest), engraved by Clément Edouard Bellenger, appeared as the month of October in de series ‘Les mois rustiques’, in Le Monde Illustré 29 (21 November 1885), Supplement to no. 1495 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 219

8. It would seem that Theo did manage to get hold of the engraving for Vincent: there is an example of Léon Augustin Lhermitte, Le semeur (The sower), engraved by Clément Edouard Bellenger – the month of November in the series ‘Les mois rustiques’, Le Monde Illustré 30 (3 April 1886), no. 1514 – in the estate. Ill. 218

(t*228).

9. The drawing Les vieux officiers by Jean-François Raffaëlli was published in Le Figaro Illustré 6 (25 December 1885). Ill. 2169

. It was after the panel Les vieux officiers, c. 1884, then in the W. Blumenthal Collection, now in the Van Gogh Museum under de title The veterans. Van Gogh was aware of the proposed publication because Le Figaro advertised it in countless advance announcements.