Original manuscript

New York, Thaw Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum

In letter 689 of Wednesday, 26 September, Vincent told Theo that he was expecting a letter from Bernard at any moment, following up on the sketches that the latter had sent (ll. 140-142). He had not yet had the letter that he was expecting when he wrote this one. One can assume that he would have replied not long after receiving Bernard’s sketches, and he had told Theo on Tuesday, 25 September that he had got them (in letter 687). Because, moreover, he now writes: ‘the weather’s really beautiful’ (ll. 6-7 (from Wednesday, 26 September until 1 October it was dry, with scattered clouds and a temperature of 25ºC), and because on Wednesday, 3 October he told Theo that he had now received a letter from Bernard, we have dated this one between Thursday, 27 September and Monday, 1 October 1888. Pickvance placed it between letters 686 and 687, but in those Van Gogh reported that the weather was autumnal. Cf. exhib. cat. New York 1984, p. 260.

In the bottom margin of p. 1 there is the counter-impression of ‘t a v Vincent’. We have not been able to find any manuscript from which it could have come. It is possible that it was left by the draft letter to Gauguin, a crossed-out fragment of which has been preserved on the back of a sketch sent to Boch on 2 October 1888 (letter 693), or by some other letter to Gauguin in reply to letter 688), which may have been enclosed with this one to Bernard. In any event, Van Gogh usually signed his letters to Gauguin with ‘t. à v.’.