a. Read: ‘afin’.

b. Read: ‘distraits’.

1. Rue de Laval was Theo’s old address. Van Gogh had made this mistake before (see letter 601).

2. Van Gogh had sent Theo Bernard’s Brothel scene ; see letter 630.

3. Van Gogh had asked for a new batch of paint in letter 629. Apparently Theo had placed orders with both Tasset and Tanguy; in letter 635 Vincent confirms receipt of paint and canvases from Tasset.

4. Sower with setting sun (F 422 / JH 1470 ).

5. See letter 632, n. 12, for Delacroix’s Christ asleep during the tempest .

6. See letter 156, n. 3, for Millet’s The sower. Van Gogh knew the pastel and the prints, not the painting; later in the letter he refers to the ‘grey’ colours.

7. For the concept of simultaneous contrast, see letter 536, n. 28.

8. Eugène Delacroix’s decorations in the ‘Galerie d’Apollon’, 1850-1851 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 60 .

9. Pierre Firmin Martin (‘père Martin’) was an art dealer at 29 rue Saint-Georges in Paris. He sold work by the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. We learn from letter 718 that several of Van Gogh’s paintings were exhibited in his gallery.

10. The Trinquetaille bridge (F 426 / JH 1468 ). The lilac he mentions has discoloured over time. The Trinquetaille Bridge linked the centre of Arles to the suburb of Trinquetaille on the opposite bank of the Rhône.

11. Van Gogh had written to Gauguin (see letter 625) and was eagerly awaiting his reply; we learn from letter 635 that he received it via Theo.