1. This was letter 799.

2. For Daudet’s novels Tartarin de Tarascon and Tartarin sur les Alpes, see letter 583, n. 9.

3. For Delacroix’s ‘neither teeth nor breath’, derived from Silvestre’s Histoire des artistes vivants français et étrangers, see letter 557, n. 6.

4. Dr Peyron planned to visit Theo in Paris; see letter 800.

5. The asylum was housed in the former monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Regarding its history, see Leroy 1948.

6. For the lithograph by Nanteuil-Leboeuf after Delacroix’s Pietà, see letter 686, n. 3.

7. This copy is Pietà (after Delacroix) (F 757 / JH 1776 ). It measures 42 x 34 cm and is therefore a no. 6 canvas (the other version, F 630 / JH 1775 , is a no. 20 canvas (73 x 60.5 cm), so it cannot be the one referred to here).

8. For Delacroix’s Daniel in the lions’ den , Algerian women in their apartments , Alfred Bruyas and Aline, the mulatto woman in Musée Fabre at Montpellier, see letter 726, nn. 21, 20, 2 and 19 respectively.

9. On 11 February 1858, the Virgin Mary had appeared to the fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto at Lourdes. Seventeen apparitions followed. In addition to the cult centred around Our Blessed Lady of Lourdes, Bernadette also became a figure of reverence, and Lourdes quickly grew into one of the most popular places of pilgrimage.

10. Van Gogh is referring to the nuns, supervised by Madame Deschanel (Sister Epiphane), who nursed the patients in the women’s wing. Orderlies worked in the ‘men’s quarters’. See Doiteau and Leroy 1928, p. 53.

11. At the end of February 1889, the residents of Van Gogh’s neighbourhood in Arles had signed a petition against him, because he supposedly represented a threat to his surroundings. The chief of police had him committed to hospital and locked up his studio. Van Gogh was meant to look for other accommodation when he was released from hospital. See letter 750.

12. Frans Braat had been a colleague of Vincent and Theo at Goupil & Cie in Paris. Theo offered him help when he was seriously ill in 1884 (FR b2962). Braat’s recovery was slow; in 1887 he was staying in Nice (FR b909). It is not known when and in what circumstances he stayed ‘in a lodging-house’, as Van Gogh writes.

13. The first version is not known; further on Van Gogh says that he has given it to the orderly, Trabuc. The repetition Vincent made for Theo is the Charles-Elzéard Trabuc (F 629 / JH 1774 ).

14. It emerges from letter 805 that Van Gogh is referring here to Self-portrait (F 627 / JH 1772 ).

15. The orderly’s wife was Jeanne Trabuc-Lafuye. Van Gogh painted her portrait a short while later; see letter 805.

16. Van Gogh had ordered canvas, paint and brushes in letter 800.

17. Theo had written that Pissarro had undergone eye surgery and that his mother had died (see letter 799).

18. Shortly before 28 September, Theo finally asked Pissarro if he wanted to take Vincent in. Pissarro refused, but promised to be on the look-out for a peaceful place for him to live. See also letter 807, n. 6. Living at Vignon’s was evidently not an option, because the subject is not mentioned again in the correspondence. Theo did ask Jouve, whom Van Gogh later mentions as a third possibility (see letter 802).

19. For Gauguin’s Van Gogh painting sunflowers , see letter 723, n. 6.

20. For Delacroix’s Christ asleep during the tempest , see letter 632, n. 12.

21. Eugène Delacroix, Pietà, c. 1850 (Oslo, Nasjonalgalleriet). Ill. 3062 . Van Gogh’s mention of Delacroix’s The crusaders must refer to Delacroix’s famous The entry of the crusaders into Constantinople (12 April 1204), 1840 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 66 .

22. In the last consignment of paintings from Arles, Theo had received four versions of Augustine Roulin (‘La berceuse’): F 504 / JH 1655 , F 506 / JH 1670 , F 507 / JH 1672 and F 508 / JH 1671 . See letter 767.

23. Fromentin was known for his paintings of Oriental subjects, inspired by his travels around North Africa. He wrote about Rembrandt and Potter in Les maîtres d’autrefois; see letter 450, n. 3. Van Gogh’s remark about Potter is possibly connected with the following description: ‘The very tone and workmanship of these vigorously observed areas have the effect of rendering nature as it truly is, in its contours, its nuances, its power, almost penetrating its mysteries’ (Le ton même et le travail de ces parties violemment observées arrivent à rendre la nature telle qu’elle est vraiment, dans son relief, ses nuances, sa puissance, presque jusque dans ses mystères) (see Fromentin 1902, pp. 215-216).

24. The Tarascon diligence (F 478a / JH 1605 ).

25. The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595 ) and/or The red vineyard (F 495 / JH 1626 ). In letter 806 Van Gogh says that he wants to make repetitions of both canvases.

26. The harvest (F 412 / JH 1440 ).

27. The night café (F 463 / JH 1575 ).

28. Delacroix, Jewish wedding in Morocco, 1837-1841? (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Ill. 73 .

29. Mrs van Gogh celebrated her 70th birthday on 10 September.

30. Since his attack on 16 or 17 July (the first in Saint-Rémy), Van Gogh had not been out of doors, not even in the garden of the asylum (see letter 800).

31. Jo’s sister Mien was in Paris; see letter 799.

32. The painter Auguste Jouve was a friend of Theo and Vincent; the estate contains several works by his hand: Reclining female nude, Portrait of a child and Portrait of a woman with a dog (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Jouve rented an apartment and a large studio at 16 boulevard Saint-Jacques in Paris. No details about his family have been found.

33. In Arles Van Gogh had had three attacks between 23 December and the end of February (see letter 750, n. 4). Apparently he viewed these attacks collectively as a single crisis.