Original manuscript

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b323 V/1962 (sheet 1) and b1036 V/1962 (sheet 2)

Vincent asks Theo to send a little extra, because he is already broke as a result of spending money in order to be able to start painting in Scheveningen (l. 49 and ll. 82-85). That places this letter after letter 361 of on or about 11 July 1883, since there he wrote that he wanted to work in Scheveningen. It must also have been written before the coming Sunday, when he is expecting a photographer (l. 79; in letter 363 this photographer indeed turns out to have come). We therefore date the letter on or about Friday, 13 July 1883.

The second sheet was not a separate letter (although it was treated as such in De brieven 1990, as 364 [-]). It must have been a postscript to one of the letters of mid-July 1883; cf. ‘something I also wanted to say to you’ (l. 93). In this fragment Vincent writes about his progress in the past year, by which he must mean the period since Theo last visited the studio, namely the beginning of August 1882 (ll. 103-105). Theo’s visit in 1883 was planned for ‘the beginning of August’ (see letter 361). It is less likely that this fragment was a postscript to letter 361 of on or about 11 July 1883: that letter already has a postscript, and Van Gogh would then have had to have used the same phrasing twice in relation to Uncle Cor, from whom he had not received ‘a syllable in reply’ (l. 59). Furthermore, the present postscript contains a reference to renewing acquaintance with a number of painters in The Hague (cf. letter 361), in front of whom he says he tries ‘to appear offhand’ (l. 38). On these grounds we have placed this postscript with letter 362.