1. It emerges later in the letter that Van Gogh is talking about the negresses in the paintings that Paul Gauguin had painted in Martinique between May and October 1887. Bernard certainly knew the two works that Theo and Vincent had in their collection: On the shore of the Lake, Martinique (see letter 576, n. 2) and Among the mangoes, 1887 (W250/W224), Ill. 107

(both Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Bernard had seen these works at the brothers’ apartment as we learn from his 1904 article ‘Concernant Paul Gauguin’, in which he gives a detailed description of Among the mangoes and remarks: ‘This work, with its qualities of style and colour, with its characteristic drawing, is the best that Gauguin painted during that period’ (Cette oeuvre par ses qualités de style et de couleur, par son dessin caractéristique, est la meilleure que Gauguin ait peinte à cette époque.) See Bernard 1994, vol. 1, p. 77.

2. The Marquesas are in French Polynesia (Oceania), and have been French colonies since 1842. We have been unable to discover which book Van Gogh means here. Merlhès suggested that it was Max Radiguet, Les derniers sauvages. Souvenirs de l’occupation française aux îles Marquises: 1842-1859 (1861). See Merlhès 1989, p. 189 (n. 3). However, the events described by Van Gogh are not found in that book. The conflict he is referring to was probably the war that took place between the islands of Hivaoa and Tahuata at the time the French assumed power there.

3. Theo had paid Gauguin 400 francs for Among the mangoes : see Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 33.

4. See for the Yellow House: letter 602, n. 3.

5. This is a reference to and quotation from the poem ‘La Prostitution’ by Emile Bernard, who wrote in his 1911 publication: ‘It will perhaps not be without interest that I publish here the sonnet criticized by Vincent, not for the sake of my lines, which are bad, but because of his opinion itself:

PROSTITUTION

To Vincent

Prostitution sallies forth, her face all paint and rouge;

Along the brightly lit boulevard she prowls

Hunting among the clan of old and young,

Those whom she’ll take to bed, tonight, very late.

In beauty though she be no match for Aude,

Her charms are not a jot the less, because

What’s beauty, if the female’s hot

And of love’s arts has perfect mastery?

My friend, let’s go attend her dismal rites,

I love her shameless nakedness by candle-light;

Let’s go, and strip her of her bodice and her hose.

And when we’ve set her, naked, on our lap,

When paint and rouge are gone, what stranger

May emerge, who’s more sublime… who knows?

October 1887.

I add the date in order to excuse these follies.’

(Il ne sera pas sans intérêt peut-être que je publie ici le sonnet critiqué par Vincent, non à cause de mes vers, qui sont mauvais, mais à cause de son opinion même:

la prostitution

A Vincent.

La Prostitution sort couverte de fard,

Le long du boulevard lumineux elle rôde

Et dans le clan des vieux et des jeunes maraude

Ceux qu’elle emmènera coucher ce soir, très tard.

Certes, si sa beauté n’est exquise comme Aude

Elle n’en est pas moins très séduisante, car

Qu’importe la beauté si la femelle est chaude

Et connaît cet amour dont elle-même est l’art!

Allons tous deux, ami, vers sa funèbre orgie,

J’aime sa nudité flambant sous la bougie;