1. On 7 June Van Gogh had been admitted to the hospital where Breitner was also a patient, the Municipal Hospital located on Zuidwal and Brouwersgracht. It was still often referred to by its old name of Burgergasthuis. His internal address while he was in hospital remained 4th Class, Ward 6, Bed 9, but after something over 14 days he was moved to a ward ‘without curtains’ (see letter 239). Cf. also exhib. cat. The Hague 1990, p. 178 (n. 14).

2. Theo’s visit, which Vincent had been looking forward to since March, would eventually take place at the beginning of August (see letters 252 and 253).

3. Van Gogh was to stay there a little longer, namely until 1 July. On admission he had 25 centimes according to the ‘Admissions Register’, which has been lost. Illustrated in Tralbaut 1968, pp. 14-15.

a. Means: ‘een aanhoudende koorts die het gestel langzaam ondermijnt’ (a persistent fever that gradually undermines the constitution).

4. The official diagnosis, as stated in the patients’ register, was ‘Gonorrhoea’; the method of treatment was ‘Injectiones c[um] Sol[utione] Sulph[atis] Zinc[icum]’. Ill. 2096 (GAH, book no. 424, inv. no. 959).

b. To be construed as: ‘Last too long to be able to be cured’; cf. the expression ‘een verouderde kwaal’.

5. Breitner was treated in the 3rd class (the ward is not specified in the patients’ register). Ill. 2097 .

c. Read: ‘lig’ (lie).

6. This contradicts letter 236, in which Van Gogh writes at length to Van Rappard about how he replied to Uncle Cor’s reaction.

7. Van Gogh was treated by the assistant physician Cornelis Anthonie Molenaar (GAH; on him Haeseker and Koch 1992, p. 41).

8. For the ‘Geel affair’, see letter 185.

9. For A.E. Simon Thomas, the doctor who treated Sien, see letter 224, n. 4.

d. Variant of ‘straks’.

10. These would have been Fish-drying barn (F 940 / JH 154 ) and Carpenter’s yard and laundry (F 944 / JH 153 ), which were sent on Saturday, 3 June (see letter 235). By ‘little drawings’ he is not referring to the format, but rather taking a fairly modest attitude – they measure 28.5 x 45 cm and 27 x 43.5 cm respectively.

11. One could be made a ward of court on the grounds of insanity or wastefulness. It can be deduced from this remark that the Van Gogh family evidently intended to use Vincent’s financial incompetence as the basis for the procedure.