Vincent van Gogh left an extensive correspondence, which sometimes provides direct insight into the creation of his works. In September 1883, he wrote to his brother Theo, describing this very drawing: "Yesterday I drew some decayed oak roots, so-called bog trunks (that is, oak trees which have perhaps been buried for a century under the bog, from which new peat has been formed; when digging it up, these bog trunks come to light). These roots were lying in a pool, in black mud. Some black ones were lying in the water in which they were reflected, some bleached ones were lying on the black earth. A little white path ran past it, behind that more peat, pitch-black. And a stormy sky over it all. That pool in the mud with those rotten roots, it was absolutely melancholy and dramatic, just like Ruysdael, just like Jules Dupré."

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