1. This remark must refer only to Anna’s children, and not to Lies’s illegitimate daughter, Hubertine Normance, who was born on 3 August 1886 and lived until 1969. Cf. Benno Stokvis, Lijden zonder klagen: het tragische levenslot van Hubertina van Gogh. Baarn 1969. Vincent’s sister Anna and her husband, Joan van Houten, had two daughters, Sara and Annie.

2. Mrs van Gogh described her new apartment to Theo and Jo as follows: ‘Wil actually has a nice little room of her own, very conveniently separated from my bedroom by a glass door that remains open a crack at night. We live in an agreeable suite, and we laid out a completely empty garden with our own shrubbery, so that we are happy to have accomplished so much’ (FR b2858).

3. Mrs van Gogh knew of the exhibition because Theo had written to Willemien about it. See letter 827, n. 4.

4. For this saying of ‘Jong Jochem’, see letter 27, n. 10.

5. Regarding Aunt Mina’s illness, see letter 811, n. 8.

6. After the death of her husband, Uncle Vincent van Gogh, on 28 July 1888, Cornelia van Gogh-Carbentus moved to The Hague on 28 November 1889.

7. This must refer to the domestic servants Jacob Vreeswijk and his wife, Sara van Toorn. By the terms of Uncle Vincent’s will, drawn up in 1877, they received 1,000 guilders. See Testament 1977 and GAB.