1. The letter from Gauguin was 692.

2. This young man was Ernest Ponthier de Chamaillard, an amateur painter who joined the group around Gauguin in Pont-Aven. Van Gogh never met him and did not even know his name. See Lettres à Bernard 1911, p. 132 and Correspondance Gauguin 1984, pp. 502-503. His View of a harbour, 1888 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum), which bears the dedication ‘to my friend Gauguin’ (à l’ami Gauguin), comes from Theo’s estate.

3. Van Gogh agreed to this proposal and sent seven studies to Pont-Aven shortly afterwards; see letter 698.

4. The ‘conseil de révision’ is the administrative board that rules on questions of fitness for military service (TLF).

5. For Gauguin, Self-portrait with portrait of Bernard, ‘Les misérables’ , see letter 692, n. 1.

6. The agreement was that while Gauguin was staying in Arles he would send Theo one painting a month in return for his financial support.

7. See letter 692, n. 1, for Bernard, Self-portrait with portrait of Gauguin .

8. The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595 ).

9. Van Gogh means the Gare de Lyon, the starting point for trains to the South.

10. By ‘our discussions’ Van Gogh means the plans for a society of artists; see letter 584, n. 6.

11. Possibly a reference to Puvis de Chavannes’ painting Hope , which Van Gogh had previously associated with the art of the future. See letter 611, n. 11.

12. The letters to Gauguin and Bernard are 695 and 696.

a. Read: ‘paillasse’.

13. Van Gogh had compared his work with ‘barbotine’ before; see letter 663, n. 7.

14. In letter 693 of 2 October Van Gogh listed seven no. 30 canvases: The night café (F 463 / JH 1575 ), an unknown painting of the park (n. 19 below), The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578 ), Path in the public garden (F 470 / JH 1582 ), Ploughed fields (‘The furrows’) (F 574 / JH 1586 ), The Yellow House (‘The street’) (F 464 / JH 1589 ) and Starry night over the Rhône (F 474 / JH 1592 ). With The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595 ) referred to above, this makes eight no. 30 canvases. As he did in letter 693, Van Gogh must also have counted Café terrace at night (F 467 / JH 1580 ), a no. 25 canvas, as a no. 30. The tenth may have been Path in the public garden (F 471 / JH 1613 ), which Van Gogh had painted on 18 September (see letter 683); however this is a no. 20 canvas (74 x 62 cm).

15. As a result of the efforts of Camille Corot, Honoré Daumier was in a position to buy a house in Valmondois, near Auvers-sur-Oise, in February 1874. Through his friend Bardon, Corot had raised more than half of the 13,000 francs needed. This generous act was common knowledge thanks to reports in the press – for instance it was mentioned in Daumier’s obituary in La Révolution Française in 1879 – and by way of Causeries sur les artistes de mon temps by Jean Gigoux, which Van Gogh had read. Gigoux wrote: ‘Good old Daumier! He was unable to hide how he was living. Towards the end, as he was almost blind, and so poor that he could not longer pay his rent in the country, Corot, good Corot, heard about it: and so he bought the house and brought him the bill of sale on his saint’s day’. (Ce brave Daumier! Il ne sut pas abriter sa vie. Vers la fin, comme il était presque aveugle, et si pauvre, qu’il ne pouvait plus payer son loyer à la campagne, Corot, le bon Corot, eut vent de cela: alors, il acheta la maison et lui porta l’acte de vente le jour de sa fête) (see Gigoux 1885, p. 55). We do not know whether Van Gogh was familiar with the book Honoré Daumier: l’homme et l’oeuvre (1888) by Arsène Alexandre (at any rate Theo had bought it in May). Alexandre mentions the story on p. 334. Cf. also Dumesnil 1875, p. 90 and Dorn 1990, p. 231 (n. 26).

16. It does not appear from the correspondence that Van Gogh and Gauguin ground their own paint in Arles.

17. Van Gogh mentioned in letter 691 that he had received a batch of coarsely ground paint from Tanguy.

18. Van Gogh also produced this possible quotation on other occasions: see letter 133, n. 8.

b. Read: ‘Si Gauguin donne le monopole’.

19. This painting is now lost; cf. the letter sketches in letters 689 and 693 for the composition.