Date:
The letter was written the day after
letter 409. Since that has been dated on or about Thursday, 6 December, we are placing the present letter on or about Friday, 7 December 1883. It precedes
letter 411, which is a direct continuation of it.
Additional:
Although in his first three letters from Nuenen Van Gogh writes nothing about the work he has done, he had in fact got down to drawing straightaway. On the evening of Saturday, 8 December 1883 Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo: ‘Don’t you think the pen-and-ink drawings of the old tower that Vincent sent you are good? He does them so easily’ (FR b2248). This batch is not mentioned anywhere in the surviving correspondence, but it must have consisted of two winter landscapes showing the churchyard at the foot of the old tower; they were sent, rolled up, on 7 December, as can be seen from the postmark on the back of one of the drawings, Churchyard in winter (F 1237 / JH 433). (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). See cat. Amsterdam 1997, pp. 30-35, cat. nos. 69-70.
