1. After noticing Monet’s work at the 1870 Salon, Durand-Ruel exhibited a painting by the artist in his London branch that same year. In 1872 he bought 29 paintings directly from Monet, and a further 34 the following year. He was taking a significant risk, for many of them remained in his stock for years. See Wildenstein 1996, vol. 1, pp. 86, 99-100.

2. Charles Laval had been in Pont-Aven since July; see letter 646.

3. Van Gogh had complained before that Tasset did not distribute the weight of the parcels sensibly, making the cost of carriage higher (see letters 658 and 659). See letter 625, n. 4, for Tasset’s standard canvas.

4. In this letter to Gauguin and Bernard, which has not survived, Van Gogh had suggested that the two should paint each other’s portraits in Pont-Aven in exchange for work by him. The exchange is mentioned several times in subsequent letters. Gauguin and Bernard complied with Van Gogh’s request in early October, but instead of painting each other’s portrait they opted to paint a self-portrait with the other’s portrait in the background (see letter 692). In exchange Gauguin got Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581

) and Bernard Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558

); see letters 697 and 698.

5. Later in the letter it transpires that this is about a short report on Dostoevsky. It must have been Jules Prével’s article, ‘Courrier des théâtres’, which discussed the Russian writer and his play Crime and Punishment. This piece was in Le Figaro on Saturday, 8 September 1888, p. 4, and in L’Intransigeant on 10 September 1888, in the ‘Theatres’ column by Dom Blasius. Vincent’s advice to Theo to ‘go to see that’ must relate to the performance in Paris a week later: ‘In a week’s time, the re-opening of the Odéon with Crime and Punishment, divided not into acts but scenes’ (Aujourd’hui en huit, récouverture de L’Odéon avec Crime et Châtiment, divisé non en actes, mais en tableaux.) It is not certain which of the two papers Van Gogh took the enclosed cutting from; he read both of them during this period.

6. The old mill (F 550 / JH 1577

7. The study in question is Rocks with a tree (F 466 / JH 1489

); the sower is Sower with setting sun (F 422 / JH 1470

). Both were in the second consignment of paintings from Arles; see letter 660.

8. The night café (F 463 / JH 1575

9. Van Gogh would have been moved above all by the description of Dostoevsky’s hard life; he was epileptic and lived in great poverty for years. He was condemned to death for treason, but was granted a last-minute reprieve. He was then sent to a forced labour camp in Siberia, where he wrote The house of the dead (see letter 812, n. 16).

10. This painting is not known. Van Gogh sent it to Bernard in Pont-Aven in October; see letter 696, n. 10. Pickvance’s identification of the exchanged work as Wheatfield with setting sun (F 465 / JH 1473

) in exhib. cat. New York 1984, p. 135, is not tenable, given its provenance. See Account book 2002, p. 174.