1. The harvest (F 412 / JH 1440 ). The white orchard is F 403 / JH 1378 . Van Gogh thought this was one of his best paintings (see letter 608).

2. Montmartre: behind the Moulin de la Galette (F 316 / JH 1246 ) and Vegetable gardens in Montmartre (F 350 / JH 1245 ).

3. This plan was to result in the painting Wheat stacks (F 425 / JH 1442 ). Van Gogh already had a drawing of the subject: Wheat stacks (F 1425 / JH 1441 ).

4. Among the harvest landscapes of this period Wheatfield with setting sun (F 465 / JH 1473 ) is the only one other than The harvest (F 412 / JH 1440 ) and Wheat stacks (F 425 / JH 1442 ) to have been painted on a canvas this size (approx. 73 x 92 cm).

5. ‘The last canvas’ is the Harvest referred to in n. 1 above; the still life is Still life with coffee pot (F 410 / JH 1426 ).

6. Paul Cézanne, The harvest, c. 1877 (private collection). Ill. 686 . Vincent and Theo saw the painting in Portier’s gallery at 54 rue Lepic. According to Rewald, Paul Gauguin was its first owner and he left it with Portier when he set off for Martinique in the spring of 1887, but there is no real evidence of this. See Rewald 1996, vol. 1, pp. 207-208, cat. no. 301, and exhib. cat. Chicago 2001, p. 384 (n. 22).

7. Aside from The harvest referred to in n. 6, Portier is known to have had one other painting by Cézanne: The village street, 1872-1873 (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery). See Rewald 1996, vol. 1, p. 146, cat. no. 187.

8. Aix-en-Provence, about 60 km to the east of Arles, was where Cézanne lived; he painted in several places in the Crau. See Rewald 1986-2, pp. 267-269.

9. Zola also came from Aix-en-Provence, where he had been at school with Cézanne.