1. In letter 639 Van Gogh said that he knew what the price of ‘ordinary canvas’ was through the catalogue of the Parisian paint merchant Bourgeois. In letter 625 he had suggested ordering this type of canvas from Tasset. He had enclosed a new order for Tasset with letter 629; it no doubt included the five metres of canvas he mentions later in this letter.

2. ‘Toile jaune’ (literally ‘yellow canvas’) is coarse canvas that has not been bleached.

a. Read: ‘à la pièce’.

3. Canal with bridge and washerwomen (F 1473 / JH 1405 ). Theo had received the drawing in May; see letter 602, n. 1.

4. Canal with washerwomen (F 427 / JH 1490 ), which measures 74 x 61 cm.

5. The paintings Orchard bordered by cypresses (F 513 / JH 1389 ) and Orchard with peach trees in blossom (F 551 / JH 1396 ).

b. Conflation of two expressions: ‘toute la gamme’ (the whole gamut from first to last) and ‘toute la lyre’ (the whole caboodle).

6. See for Van Gogh’s paintings of orchards in blossom in March-April 1888: letter 600, n. 7; for his paintings of wheatfields: letter 629, n. 3.

7. See letter 623, n. 4, for Gauguin’s plan.