2. These might have included the sketchbook from Brittany and Arles of 1888 (Jerusalem, The Israel Museum), published as Le carnet de Paul Gauguin. (Gauguin 1952). Gauguin might also have taken that sketchbook with him to Paris; the sketch it contains of a guillotine could be connected with the execution of Prado which he witnessed there on 27 December 1888. See exhib. cat. Chicago 2001, p. 265.

3. In letter 734 Gauguin had asked Van Gogh to send his fencing masks and gloves. Vincent sent them at the end of April or beginning of May 1889 in a consignment of paintings to Theo (see letter 765).

4. This ‘unfortunate letter’ was the one Gauguin sent to Bernard’s sister Madeleine in mid-October 1888, in which he advised her to put off marrying, and first to earn her own livelihood. Her father, who had intercepted the letter, wrote an angry letter to Gauguin, who received it in Arles and forwarded it to Bernard. See Correspondance Gauguin 1984, pp. 256, 269, 510 (n. 295).

According to Bernard, Gauguin had fallen in love with Madeleine in Pont-Aven – she had been there from mid-August to mid-October 1888 – and was even intending to elope with her. Her father had, however, forbidden all contact between her and Gauguin. See Wildenstein 2001, pp. 444, 449. Gauguin must have told Van Gogh about this, as emerges from the lack of further explanation in the present letter and the reference to the letter from Bernard’s father in letter 817 of November 1889.

5. It is apparent from this passage and the one about exhibiting in Brussels that Gauguin is reacting to Van Gogh’s letter, which is no longer extant.

6. Gauguin had been staying with the Schuffenecker family (29 rue Boulard) since his return to Paris. Regarding his studio, see letter 734, n. 5.

7. Gauguin is referring to his series of ten ‘zincographies’ (1889), which he made after Theo had urged him to make lithographs. In January-February 1889 he had them printed in Paris by Edouard Ancourt with the title Dessins lithographiques Paul Gauguin. The series is also referred to as the ‘Suite Volpini’, after the 1889 exhibition at which they were displayed (cf. letter 779, n. 13). One example is Old maids of Arles, 1889 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2274

8. Paul Gauguin, The Schuffenecker family, 1889 (W313) (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Ill. 103

9. These sketches by Gauguin of the market are not known.

10. Gauguin had been invited to display his work at the sixth exhibition of the artists’ society Les Vingt in Brussels, and was toying with the idea of settling in Brussels (letter 723).