1. Paul Eugène Milliet.

2. On the similarities between Van Gogh’s description and that of the garden in Zola’s La faute de l’abbé Mouret: Sund 1992, p. 175; see for the reference to ‘Le Paradou’: letter 344, n. 1.

3. The drawing of the ruin was Hill with the ruins of Montmajour Abbey (F 1446 / JH 1504 ). Van Gogh had previously drawn The rock of Montmajour with pine trees (F 1447 / JH 1503 ) and Olive trees, Montmajour (F - / JH add. 3 ); see letter 637. The three drawings were all the same large size (approx. 49 x 60 cm).

4. Tanguy owned two portraits: Père Tanguy (F 263 / JH 1202 ) and Père Tanguy (F 363 / JH 1351 ).

5. This portrait of Mrs Tanguy is not known.

6. Probably Portrait of a man (F 288 / JH 1200 ).

7. See letter 637, n. 2, for the study that Tanguy had: The Seine with moored boats (F 300 / JH 1275) or Bank of the Seine with a boat (F 353 / JH 1271).

8. For Xantippe, see letter 595, n. 8.

9. Louis Pasteur had discovered a rabies vaccine in 1885. The institute named after him opened in Paris in 1888. There was a ward for treating patients infected with rabies.

10. The time of William the Silent (William i of Orange) and Philips van Marnix, Lord of Sint Aldegonde, William’s right-hand man. The League of Nobles is a reference to the petition (the ‘compromis’) that was presented to the governor-general, Margaret of Parma, in 1566.

11. It emerges from letter 639 that this was the paint supplier Bourgeois in Paris. See letter 366, n. 9, for Bourgeois.

12. Van Gogh also quoted this remark by Père Martin in letter 634.

13. In the story ‘La rouille’ the fanatical huntsman Gontran de Coutelier meets Berthe Vilers. They go hunting together (among other things for partridge, known for their sexual energy) and he falls in love with her. He goes to Paris to reflect on his proposed alliance, but returns changed and aged. Later he confesses to a friend that his prolonged period of celibacy has left him impotent. See Maupassant 1974, pp. 1458 ff.

14. What Van Gogh writes here is confirmed by a letter from Ziem to Arsène Houssaye of 26 September 1885: ‘Just imagine that right here I am producing some of my finest pictures: the autumnal fruits of the waking hours, the worries and the scourgings which clot the sperm to solidify brain matter. Matter is pretty. Your Zanzibar Ziem.’ (Figurez-vous que je fais ici même, mes plus beaux tableaux: le fruit automnal des veilles, des préoccupations, des macérations qui figent le sperme pour solidifier la matière cérébrale. Matière est jolie. Votre Zanzibar Ziem.) Taken from Pierre Miquel, Félix Ziem 1821-1911. 2 vols. Maurs-la-Jolie 1978, vol. 1, p. 161.

15. The philosopher Pangloss is a character in Voltaire’s Candide; see letter 568, n. 3.

16. The cleaning woman’s name is not known. In letter 677 we read that she was quite old and had a lot of children. Van Gogh paid her 20 francs a month (see letter 736). See also letter 747, n. 1.

17. Café in the place Pigalle in Paris, where the group of artists and writers around Manet, Degas and Desboutin met regularly.

18. In view of the context, Van Gogh must have meant a portrait of an artist. It is not possible to work out from this passage whether Desboutin was the subject of the portrait, the painter, or both, and it is therefore not possible to identify the work. Van Gogh’s use of the word ‘unfortunate’ must allude to Desboutin who was ‘a ruined man having squandered his considerable inheritance collecting paintings and enjoying a bohemian life ... Misery and sadness surrounded him’. See exhib. cat. Cleveland 1980, p. 286.

19. Van Gogh’s remark about stars and the hereafter has been linked to the story ‘Les étoiles’ in Daudet’s Lettres de mon moulin and to Zola’s La joie de vivre (see Sund 1992, p. 187).