In
De brieven 1990 this letter was dated on or about 11 March 1884. However, it fits more logically at the beginning of the year – Van Gogh looks back on the previous year
(l. 58). In any event it was certainly written before March, as is clear from
ll. 51-52: ‘I would wish it to remain the usual until March’. It precedes
letter 422, which dates from about 15 January 1884. In that letter Van Gogh wrote about how things should proceed in terms of Theo’s financial contributions, and what changes might possibly take place in that regard from March onwards. The use of the notion of ‘disorder’ in
letter 420 (l. 46) and ‘disorderliness’ in
letter 422 (l. 10) is a further indication that the two letters were written at around the same time. Since Van Gogh is somewhat less fierce in
letter 422 and promises to send watercolours, we think that the present letter preceded that one. This means that it then follows
letter 419 of around 4 January, and this is in line with what it says at the beginning of the letter: Van Gogh now writes in a calm tone (while he says that he was rather rash in the previous letter). It is not possible to say for certain whether there was yet another letter at the beginning of January or whether that was
letter 419, which crossed Theo’s in the post. For all these reasons we believe that
letter 420 dates from between about Sunday, 6 and about Sunday, 13 January 1884. See also Dorn in exhib. cat. Vienna 1996, pp. 154 (n. 1), 162 (nn. 2-3).
