1. Theo and Jo arrived in Paris on Saturday, 20 April; see letter 762.

2. The 65 francs was the rent for three months for the Yellow House (February–April). Since December Van Gogh had rented the whole house for 21.50 francs a month (see letter 735).

3. The owner of the Yellow House was Marie Louise Verdier; Van Gogh paid his rent to Verdier’s agent, Bernard Soulè, who was in charge of the building. See letter 602, n. 19.

4. Van Gogh stayed in hospital until his departure for Saint-Rémy on 8 May. Letter 767 and correspondence with Joseph and Marie Ginoux reveals that he had stored his furniture with them in the Café de la Gare. Salles had informed Theo on 19 April 1889: ‘For the time being the furniture has been sent to the house of a neighbour, to whom your brother has paid three months’ rent for this purpose, 18 francs in all’ (Pour le moment les meubles sont remises chez un voisin auquel votre frère a payé trois mois de location pour cet objet, en tout 18 f.) (FR b1050).

5. The institution, a ‘private establishment dedicated to the treatment of insane persons of both sexes’ (établissement privé consacré au traitement des aliénés des deux sexes), was housed in the former monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, just outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, about 25 km north-east of Arles. Salles told Theo about it in the above-mentioned letter of 19 April, and sent him a prospectus (see letter 762, n. 2). Regarding this asylum, see Leroy 1948 and Jean-Marc Boulon, Vincent van Gogh à Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Marseille 2003.

At the beginning of May 1889, Theo wrote the following to their mother: ‘Various letters from Vincent report that he feels very well physically. He is gradually beginning to realize, however, that he has received a blow and therefore feels the need for treatment. With his full cooperation and through the agency of the Rev. Salles, it has now been decided that he will undergo treatment for a while at St Rémy, not far from Arles, where there is an institution at which 45 patients receive nursing care. The Rev. Salles went there himself to see what it was like, and put me in touch with the director. That Rev. Salles is exemplary. May V. benefit from it’ (FR b940).

6. It is possible that Van Gogh wrote ‘tout’ instead of ‘tant’.

a. Read: ‘vivre’.

7. For the philosopher Pangloss from Voltaire’s Candide, see letter 568, n. 3.

8. Rey was occupied by such things as the smallpox epidemic raging in Arles from October 1888 until the end of April 1889; see letter 735, n. 15.

9. Van Gogh is referring to his first nervous breakdown on 23 December 1888, at which time he cut off his left ear and caused a lot of commotion in the neighbourhood. See letter 728, n. 1.