2. The two seascapes are Fishing boats at sea (F 415 / JH 1452

) and Fishing boats at sea (F 417 / JH 1453

); the view of the village is View of Saintes-Maries (F 416 / JH 1447

3. See for these drawings n. 11 below.

4. At this time there were two registered boarding-houses in Saintes-Maries. It is possible that Van Gogh stayed at the cheaper of the two – Pension Coulomb at what is now place Mireille. See Amiel 2005, p. 15.

5. Van Gogh changed his mind: see letters 623 and 625.

6. It is not clear which picture of an Egyptian butcher Van Gogh is referring to here. Jean Léon Gérôme painted an Egyptian butcher twice (both lost). See Ackerman 1986, p. 202, cat. nos. 82-83.

7. The twelfth-century fortified church Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer is the central point of the village – Van Gogh painted it on his view of the village (see n. 2 above). The barracks was a ‘caserne de douanes’ (ADM).

8. Van Gogh means the ‘cabanes de gardians’, the typical white cottages with thatched roofs found in the Camargue; they appear in several of his drawings and paintings (see n. 11 below).

9. In the end Van Gogh probably took his paintings with him after all: see letter 620, n. 4.

10. The priest of Saintes-Maries was Charles Ferdinand Escombard. The only name under ‘gendarmerie’ in the address books was that of Sergeant Rochon (L’indicateur marseillais 1888, 1889).

11. By ‘half-sheet’ drawings, Van Gogh means the following seven, all of which measure about 30 x 47 cm: Cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 1438 / JH 1448

), Row of cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 1434 / JH 1449

), Sunlit cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 1437 / JH 1450

), Cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 1440 / JH 1451

), Cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 1436 / JH 1454

), Fishing boats off the beach at Saintes-Maries (F 1432 / JH 1455

) and View of Saintes-Maries with cemetery (F 1479 / JH 1456

). See cat. Amsterdam 2007, pp. 118-119.

The large drawing is View of Saintes-Maries (F 1439 / JH 1446

), which measures 43 x 60 cm. By ‘the last one’ Van Gogh means the sheet of similar size that he had sent to Theo before he left for Saintes-Maries, View of Arles from a hill (F 1452 / JH 1437

). For the actual sending of the drawing, see letter 620.