1. In letters 736 and 738 Vincent had urgently requested money from Theo, because the money that he expected to receive around 10 January did not arrive until the 17th.

2. Blue gloves and a basket of oranges and lemons (F 502 / JH 1664 ). In Paris Van Gogh had painted two still lifes of baskets of fruit: Basket of apples (F 378 / JH 1340 ) and Basket of apples (F 379 / JH 1341 ). In Arles he made Basket of oranges (F 395 / JH 1363 ), which he compared in letter 592 with the Paris still lifes and included in the first batch of paintings he sent to Theo (see letter 606).

3. For Monticelli’s Vase of flowers , see letter 578, n. 4.

4. Van Gogh no doubt means ‘the two canvases of sunflowers’ mentioned later in the letter: Sunflowers in a vase (F 456 / JH 1561 ) and Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562 ). They were hanging in Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House, and Vincent assumed that Theo had seen them during his visit to Arles (see letter 743).

5. The bedroom (F 482 / JH 1608 ).

6. This refers to Theo’s downstairs neighbour, the art dealer Alphonse Portier.

a. Read: ‘que nous devons’.

7. Augustine Roulin (‘La berceuse’) (F 508 / JH 1671 ).

8. The fear that others were afraid of him is confirmed by Theo, who wrote to Jo Bonger a short time later, on 14 February 1889: ‘If I had time, I should go and see him and go hiking with him, for instance. That’s the only thing I can think of that would really give him peace of mind. If one of the painters might like to do that I shall send him there. But those he gets on with are slightly afraid of him, which Gauguin’s visit to him did nothing to change, on the contrary’ (see FR b2035; Brief happiness 1999, p. 160).

9. The ‘new group’ must refer to the painters from Gauguin’s circle, who had stayed behind in Pont-Aven: Henry Moret, Emile Jourdan, Charles Filiger, Ernest Ponthier de Chamaillard and Charles Laval. See exhib. cat. Paris 2003, pp. 92-96.

10. To Theo’s suggestion to exhibit Small pear tree in blossom (F 405 / JH 1394 ) at Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Van Gogh had answered in letter 721 that he found it unnecessary.

11. Gauguin had set his heart on Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562 ); see letter 739.

12. Van Gogh and Gauguin had exchanged paintings in November 1887 (see letter 576, n. 2) and in October 1888 (see letter 697).

13. Marie Ginoux (‘The Arlésienne’) (F 489 / JH 1625 ). Cf. also letter 717, in which Van Gogh wrote that he had painted the portrait in just one hour.