1. In letter 559 Van Gogh had already suggested that he could spend his time in Paris, before going to Cormon, drawing in the Louvre and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

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

3. See for this ‘quarrel’: letter 561.

4. The female torso he refers to is not known; it may have been the same torso he drew twice in a sketchbook: Plaster torso of a woman (F1693h / JH 1002) and Plaster torso of a woman seen from the side (F 1693i / JH 1003).