1. In this letter Jet Mauve thanked him for the painting Pink peach trees (‘Souvenir de Mauve’) (F 394 / JH 1379 ); see letter 719, n. 1.

a. Read: ‘qu’elle habitait toujours’.

2. From 1885 Jet and Anton Mauve lived with their three children at Villa Johanna in Laren. After Mauve’s death on 5 February 1888, Jet and her children moved to The Hague. On 30 June 1888 they were registered as living at Riouwstraat 70, where Jet would die on 28 March 1894 (GAH).

3. In October 1888 Willemien had stayed for a while with the Korteweg family in Middelharnis. On 19 October she wrote to Theo: ‘Here I’ve finished reading “Au bonheur des dames”. Oh, how superb it is! ... I’ll certainly read more by Zola, but not for the time being. I still have a cupboard full of your books and would like to give them to you if you come home. Do you remember Denise and Mouret meeting in the Jardin des Tuileries? That’s a beautiful ending’ (FR b2275). For Zola’s Au bonheur des dames, see letter 464, n. 2.

4. Regarding this photograph of Mrs van Gogh, see letter 678, n. 16. There is no surviving letter to Willemien in which Van Gogh writes that he does not like the photograph. He might also have been mistaken, since this was something he had written repeatedly to Theo, not to Willemien (see letters 685, 699 and 700).

5. The letter sketch Reminiscence of the garden at Etten (F - JH 1631) was made after the painting of the same name (F 496 / JH 1630 ), which measures 73.5 x 92.5 cm. The ideas of Gauguin, who urged Van Gogh to work from imagination and from memory, resound in this description (cf. letter 719).

6. The letter sketch Woman reading a novel (F - / JH 1633) was made after the painting of the same name (F 497 / JH 1632 ). The yellow book stands for modern French literature; inexpensive editions had yellow covers.