1. This study of olive trees is not known; Van Gogh wrote in letter 806 that it was a smaller version of one of his canvases of olive trees.

2. Reaper (F 619 / JH 1792 ).

3. Wheatfield and cypresses (F 743 / JH 1790 ).

4. The bedroom (F 483 / JH 1793 ).

5. Field with a ploughman (F 625 / JH 1768 ).

6. It is not known which painting of a blossoming orchard is referred to here.

7. Self-portrait with clean-shaven face (F 525 / JH 1665 ).

8. One of these works was probably Sprig of almond blossom in a glass with a book (F 393 / JH 1362 ), which Van Gogh said in letter 590 was to be for Willemien. For the other canvases in Willemien’s possession, see letter 678, n. 10.

9. This intention never came to fruition; in any case, nothing is known of works received by Anna and Jet Carbentus. Margot Begemann owned only early paintings by Van Gogh, namely The old church tower at Nuenen with a ploughman (F 34 / JH 459 ) and Cottage (F 92 / JH 810).

10. For Dr Peyron’s visit to Theo, see letter 807.

11. The bedroom (F 482 / JH 1608 ) and The bedroom (F 484 / JH 1771 ). They measure 72 x 90 cm and 73.6 x 92.3 cm, respectively.

12. Van Gogh is referring to the sober, simple way of life – idealised by George Eliot – chosen by the resolute protagonist Felix Holt, who lives ‘in the absence of all elegance, luxury, gaiety or romance’ and ‘has chosen his lot. He means always to be a poor man’. Van Gogh’s remark later in the letter, that he had ‘the taste, the need for simplicity’, even though ‘an ideal of simplicity makes life more difficult’, is perfectly in keeping with the life chosen by Holt. See Eliot 1980, pp. 152, 352. Cf. Dorn 1990, pp. 140-141.

13. The red vineyard (F 495 / JH 1626 ) had been at Theo’s since the end of May 1889 (see letter 767).

14. Van Gogh derived his knowledge of the simple interiors of the Japanese from Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème. See letter 639, n. 11.

15. Ward in the hospital (F 646 / JH 1686 ).

16. This was probably the article on Dostoevsky that Vincent had sent to Theo the previous year; see letter 680, n. 5. Dostoevsky’s novel The house of the dead (1864) is based on the time he spent (1850-1854) doing forced labour in a Siberian prison camp, where his health, which was weak to start with (he suffered from epilepsy), seriously deteriorated. The first French translation dates from 1886.

17. Quotation from Carmen Sylva’s Les pensées d’une reine (see Sylva 1888, p. 80, ‘La douleur’). Unlike the quotation appearing in letters 804 and 805, this passage was not quoted by Loti in his article on Carmen Sylva.