1. Gauguin must be replying here to the letter Van Gogh said he had written in letter 676 of 8 September.

2. See Van Uitert 1983, pp. 13-16, for Gauguin’s symbolist art theory of emotion, based on Swedenborg and Balzac

3. Emile Bernard had been in Pont-Aven for a month, see letter 664.