1. See letter 568, n. 3, for this quotation from Voltaire’s Candide.

2. Cor had been apprenticed to an engineering works in Helmond (see letters 443, n. 3 and 471, n. 6), and had been working for a similar company in Lincoln, England, since 1887.

3. See letter 550, n. 12, for the expression ‘to be someone’, taken from Edmond de Goncourt’s Chérie.

4. See letter 654, n. 1, for the 12 drawings for Russell.

5. See letters 657 and 663 for this batch of drawings for Theo.

6. Van Gogh had had to ask the landlord for more time to pay (see letter 654). The rent for the Yellow House was 15 francs a month (see letter 664).

7. Joseph Roulin (F 432 / JH 1522 ) and Joseph Roulin (F 433 / JH 1524 ).

8. Exactly what Van Gogh gave Roulin is not clear. It may have been one or more copies of the popular political satire weekly La Lanterne, founded by Henri Rochefort, which appeared in 1868 and 1869, or of the radical socialist anticlerical daily of the same title, which had been published since 1877 and with which Rochefort was associated for some time. See Henri Rochefort, Nouméa to Newcastle. The story of an escape. Translated from the French by Kenneth R. Dutton. Newcastle 2002. Introduction, p. 1.

a. Read as (figurative) direct object with ‘pose’.

9. The two lithographs (pendants) Le café (The coffee) and Le vin (The wine) by Aimé de Lemud were published in Paris by Goupil and Vibert (Paris, BNF, Cabinet des Estampes). Ill. 2215 and Ill. 1047 .

10. Nothing is known about this Raoul, whom Van Gogh met in Paris.

11. Van Gogh likewise bracketed the writers Hoffmann and Poe together in letter 361. A mysterious, demonic atmosphere permeates their fantastic tales.

12. Van Gogh put this plan into effect a month later; see letter 676.