1. The mother of Augustine Roulin, Rosalie Pelicot-Décès, lived in rue de la Campane in Lambesc, about 40 km east of Arles (Mairie de Lambesc).

2. The sketch Van Gogh refers to is his first version: Augustine Roulin (‘La berceuse’) (F 508 / JH 1671 ). The two repetitions are F 505 / JH 1669 and F 506 / JH 1670 . The Roulins had chosen F 505 / JH 1669 ; the repetition of it (the fourth version) is F 507 / JH 1672 .

3. Theo must have enclosed Mourier-Petersen’s letter to Vincent (letter 742). Mourier-Petersen had assumed that Vincent was no longer in Arles.

4. Mette Gauguin-Gad lived in Copenhagen. Gauguin did in fact receive a version of the Berceuse; see letter 776, n. 3. It emerges from this passage that Van Gogh wanted him to have a triptych (consisting of the Berceuse flanked by the repetitions of the sunflowers); see also letter 736, n. 12.

5. Van Gogh is probably referring here to his remark in letter 744, that his Berceuse was not correctly rendered and in that respect did not resemble the work of Cabanel or Bouguereau in the slightest.

6. Koning had written in letter 746 about his plan to travel with a friend to France.

a. Read: ‘possiblement’.

7. Salles wrote to Theo that Vincent had received these 50 francs, ‘when he left the hospital’ (au moment où il est sorti de l’hospice) (FR b1047, 26 February 1889). This must have been as early as 18 February, since Vincent wrote at the time: ‘Today I’ve just returned home for the time being’ (letter 747, ll. 4-5).

8. For Gauguin’s series of lithographs ‘Suite Volpini’, see letter 737, n. 7.

9. On 23 February 1887 Nice had experienced a serious earthquake that had claimed many lives. See André Laurenti, Les tremblements de terre des Alpes-maritimes. Nice 1998, pp. 36-45.

10. Van Gogh must be referring to the earthquake in the Dauphiné on 18 February 1889, which registered 6-7 on a scale of 12 and was therefore a moderate tremor. The Courrier des Alpes reported it on 21 February. We are indebted to Geneviève Patau, Institut du Physique du Globe de Paris, Département de Sismologie, for this information. A report of this earthquake in the local Arles newspapers has not been traced.

b. Read: ‘vit’.