1. This ‘head’ of a woman is not known.

2. Woman with a scarlet bow in her hair (F 207 / JH 979

3. Portrait of a woman (F 207a / JH 1204) may have been a study for this portrait. See cat. Amsterdam 2011.

4. This may have been Head of a woman (F 206 / JH 972). See cat. Amsterdam 2011.

5. An allusion to the theme of Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle; cf. letter 325, n. 34.

6. Van Gogh refers to these two women again in letter 553, where it emerges that they are sisters.

7. In 1879 Alphonse Portier was the gérant (organizer) of the Impressionists’ fourth group exhibition. The second, in 1876, had been held in the gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, who emerged in the years that followed as the most important dealer in the work of these painters. See Distel 1989, pp. 25, 43.

8. Portier was only 44 in 1885; it may be that Van Gogh was confusing him with Durand-Ruel – born in 1831 – whom he also mentions here.

9. This was probably a photo of Rembrandt’s Bust of a young woman smiling (possibly the artist´s wife Saskia van Uylenburgh), 1633 (Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister). Ill. 376

10. Rembrandt, The prodigal son in the tavern (formerly Rembrandt and Saskia), c. 1635 (Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister). Ill. 378

12. At the end of his preface to his novel Chérie (1884), Edmond de Goncourt looks back at his achievements and those of his brother Jules, who had died in 1870. ‘Now I have battled, I have toiled and I have fought for more than thirty years; for years my brother and I were all alone, taking the knocks from everyone. I am tired, I have had enough and I will let others take over’ (Il y a aujourd’hui plus de trente ans que je lutte, que je peine, que je combats, et pendant nombre d’années, nous étions, mon frère et moi, tout seuls, sous les coups de tout le monde. Je suis fatigué, j’en ai assez, je laisse place aux autres). For a description of their contribution to the art and literature of their day he quotes his brother Jules: ‘the search for truth in literature, the revival of eighteenth-century art, the triumph of Japonism: these are ... the three great literary and artistic movements of the second half of the nineteenth century… and we will have led them, these three movements… us, poor unknown us. Well! when you have done that … it will be really difficult not to be someone in the future’ (la recherche du vrai en littérature, la résurrection de l’art du XVIIIe siècle, la victoire du japonisme: ce sont ... les trois grands mouvements littéraires et artistiques de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle... et nous les aurons menés, ces trois mouvements... nous, pauvres obscurs. Eh bien! quand on a fait cela... c’est vraiment difficile de n’être pas quelqu’un dans l’avenir). See Goncourt 1884, pp. x and xv-xvi. Van Gogh may possibly have alluded to this again in letters 655 and 656.

13. This emphasis on ‘truth’ in a work of art is also discussed in the introduction to Chérie and was something Van Gogh was to repeat several times; see also the previous note.

14. Van Gogh is referring here to the Rembrandt portrait referred to above; see n. 9.

16. Alfred Stevens was known for his elegant portraits of women of the bourgeoisie; cf. Van Gogh’s opinion of him in letter 500.