1. The rock of Montmajour with pine trees (F 1447 / JH 1503 [2665]) and Trees, Montmajour (F - / JH add. 3 [2324]), see letter 637; Hill with the ruins of Montmajour Abbey (F 1446 / JH 1504 [2666]), see letter 638; La Crau seen from Montmajour (F 1420 / JH 1501 [2147]) and Landscape near Montmajour with a train (F 1424 / JH 1502 [2148]).
[2665] [2324] [2666] [2147] [2148]
2. View of Arles from a hill (F 1452 / JH 1437 [2618]); see letters 617 and 618.
[2618]
3. This general view of the ruin was meant to complete the set of six drawings (see letter 637), but Van Gogh never got round to doing it. The drawing Theo already had was The ruins of Montmajour (F 1417 / JH 1434 [2615]); see letter 613.
[2615]
4. La Crau seen from Montmajour (F 1420 / JH 1501 [2147]) and Landscape near Montmajour with a train (F 1424 / JH 1502 [2148]). Ill. 2147 [2147]- 2148 [2148].
[2147] [2148] [2147] [2148]
5. Van Gogh hoped that Thomas, who had some of his paintings in his shop (see letter 718), would give him an advance on his saleable work and repeatedly urged Theo to approach him. However, his efforts were fruitless.
6. The painting Sunset at Montmajour (F - / JH - [3106]), which he had done two weeks earlier on Montmajour (see letter 636).
[3106]
7. For the paint supplier Bourgeois see letter 366, n. 9. Van Gogh also compared the prices charged by the different firms in letters 635 and 631.
8. 14 July is the French national holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789), the start of the French Revolution.
9. This was probably Mourier-Petersen; at any rate it appears from the postscript that he knew the places around Arles depicted in the drawings.
10. It can be inferred from letters 638 and 641 that Van Gogh meant the Zouave lieutenant Milliet, with whom he had spent a day on Montmajour. Milliet had been in Tonkin (see letter 623) and was thus familiar with the sea.
11. See for Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème: letter 628, n. 20. It contains the following passage about houses with bare interiors and the view over the countryside: ‘What is immediately striking in Japanese interiors is the meticulous cleanliness and the icy-white starkness. I am taken up to the first floor on immaculate matting, without a crease, without pattern, without a mark, to a large room containing nothing, absolutely nothing. The paper walls are made out of sliding frames which can roll behind one another or disappear if required – and one whole side of the apartment opens up into a veranda looking out over the green countryside and the grey sky’ (Ce qui frappe dès l’abord, dans ces intérieurs japonais, c’est la propreté minutieuse, et la nudité blanche, glaciale. Sur des nattes irréprochables, sans un pli, sans un dessin, sans une souillure, on me fait monter au première étage, dans une grande pièce où il n’y a rien, absolument rien. Les murs en papier sont composés de châssis à coulisse, pouvant rentrer les uns dans les autres, au besoin disparaître, – et tout un côté de l’appartement s’ouvre en véranda sur la campagne verte, sur le ciel gris) (see Loti 1990, chapter 3, p. 60).
‘The description of the cloister or pagoda where there’s nothing’ refers to chapter 40, where it says that the monks’ cells are completely empty, with just a few unframed sketches on the walls: ‘nothing else, no seats, no cushions, no furniture. It is the ultimate in desired simplicity, in elegance crafted from nothing’ (rien de plus; pas de sièges, pas de coussins, pas de meubles. C’est le comble de la simplicité cherchée, de l’élégance faite avec du néant) (Loti 1990, pp. 172-173).
Van Gogh’s fascination with the Japanese approach to art derives from the following passage: ‘For he who has a few notions of Japanese style, my mother-in-law’s interior will reveal to him alone a refined person; total starkness, just two or three little screens placed here and there – a teapot, a vase containing lotus flowers, nothing else ... There are little hiding places everywhere, small niches and cupboards, ingeniously and unexpectedly hidden behind the immaculate uniformity of white paper panels ... In France, we have objets d’art to enjoy them; here they shut them away, neatly labelled in a sort of mysterious, underground apartment, with iron gratings, which is called a godoun’ (Pour qui a quelques notions de japonerie, l’intérieur de ma belle-mère révèle à lui seul une personne raffinée: nudité complète; à peine deux ou trois petits paravents posés çà et là, – une théière, un vase où trempent des lotus; rien de plus ... Il y a partout des petites cachettes, des petites niches, des petits placards, dissimulés de la manière la plus ingénieuse et la plus inattendue sous l’uniformité immaculée des panneaux de papier blanc ... En France, on a des objets d’art pour en jouir; ici, pour les enfermer, bien étiquetés, dans une sorte d’appartement mystérieux, souterrain, grillé en fer, qu’on appelle godoun) (Loti 1990, chapter 35, p. 157).
12. The harvest (F 1483 / JH 1439 [2620]) and Seated Zouave (F 1443 / JH 1485 [2654]). See letters 625 and 630.
[2620] [2654]
13. In letter 636 Van Gogh commented that Tasset had not sent enough zinc white in the previous batch.
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