1. See for this promise: letter 431.

2. Van Gogh quotes the poem ‘Tristement’ later in this letter: see n. 7.

3. Hippolyte Boulenger, The Josaphat brook in Schaarbeek, 1865-1867 (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten). Ill. 623 . We do not know whether Van Gogh ever saw the original painting (in any event his doubt about the scene is justified: the painting is of a stream lined with poplars, not an avenue). If he did not, he could have known the work from two magazines that he used to see: there was an engraving after the work by Eugène Froment, under the title La vallée de Josaphat, in L’Art 1 (1875), facing p. 290; and in Musée Universel 4 (1876), pp. 72-73; cf. letter 141, nn. 6-8 and 157, n. 17. Van Gogh and Van Rappard had walked together in this valley (see letters 293 and 605). In March 1884 Van Gogh drew a poplar avenue that has been linked to this work by Boulenger: Avenue of poplars (F 1239 / JH 464 ). See cat. Amsterdam 1997, pp. 95-98, cat. no. 92.

4. All the poems that Van Gogh copied on the sheet enclosed with the letter appear in Coppée 1880.

5. This is probably the pen-and-ink drawing Avenue of poplars (F 1241 / JH 470), which once belonged to Van Rappard. Moreover, the motif of the double line of trees is consistent with both Boulenger’s painting and the drawing Avenue of poplars (F 1239 / JH 464 ). Van Rappard had also been sent a small drawing of a loom and Parsonage garden (F 1133 / JH 485), see letter 437, nn. 1 and 3.

6. Van Gogh knew this fable by Ferdinand de Lesseps through the article in La Nouvelle Revue (see n. 9 below). The magazine was one of a package of journals to which the family in Nuenen subscribed (FR b2268).

7. The poem ‘Tristement’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 148-149. The most important differences are:

l. 79 vêtements ] vêtements noirs

l. 92 J’évoque ] J’invoque

The poem has been linked with Van Gogh’s painting Avenue of poplars in autumn (F 122 / JH 522 ), which he was to make in October of this same year during a visit from Van Rappard. See cat. Amsterdam 1999, pp. 69-70 (n. 11).

8. The poem ‘A un souslieutenant’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 215-216.

9. Ferdinand de Lesseps in ‘Souvenirs d’un voyage au Soudan’ (Recollections of a journey in the Sudan), in La Nouvelle Revue 6 (vol. 26), janvier-février 1884, pp. 491-516 (quotation on pp. 494-495).

10. The poem ‘Le chien perdu’, from the collection Ecrit pendant le siège, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 85-86.

11. Van Gogh added a similar comment in the same place when he copied this poem in letter 430.

12. The poem ‘A l’ambulance’, from the collection Ecrit pendant le siège, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 87-89.

13. The poem ‘La soeur novice’, from the collection Les humbles, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 66-67. There is an anomaly:

215plants ] plans

14. The poem ‘Pour toujours’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 170-171.

15. The poem ‘Désir dans le spleen’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 230-232. The most important difference is:

l. 271 femme pensive au paupières ] fille blanche aux paupières

16. The poem ‘Douleur bercée’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 198-199.

17. The poem ‘Blessure rouverte’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, p. 200.

18. The poem ‘La première’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, pp. 221-222. A significant difference is:

l. 320 nous nous sommes quittés ] elle m’a quitté (we parted ] she left me)

19. Van Gogh also varied this line in letter 430.

20. The poem ‘Dans la rue – le soir’, from the collection Le cahier rouge, in: Coppée 1880, p. 226.