1. See letter 692, n. 1, for Gauguin, Self-portrait with portrait of Bernard, ‘Les misérables’ [2262], and Bernard, Self-portrait with portrait of Gauguin [2261].
Bernard had suggested an exchange with the group in Pont-Aven (see letter 694). Van Gogh sent seven studies (see letter 704). Two of them – Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581 [2715]) and Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558 [2700]) respectively – were intended for Bernard and Gauguin in return for their self-portraits. See letter 697, n. 4, and n. 11 below.
The other five works were intended for the new exchange with Bernard, Laval, Moret and Chamaillard. Two can be identified for certain: Thistles (F 447 / JH 1550 [2696]) and The old mill (F 550 / JH 1577 [2712]), which went to Moret and Chamaillard respectively. See letter 696, n. 12, and n. 10 below. Two of the other three studies probably went to Bernard, and one to Laval, both of whom sent work in exchange (see letter 719, nn. 2 and 3). There was certainly a ‘red sunset’ (l. 130); going by Van Gogh’s descriptions in letter 696 of the studies he was thinking of sending, the remaining two could have been chosen from the following three: ‘a study of a little garden of multicoloured flowers’, ‘a still life of old peasants’ shoes’ or ‘a small landscape of nothing at all, in which there’s nothing but a bit of an expanse’.
The ‘study of a little garden’ was Garden with flowers (F 578 / JH 1538 [2686]), which Van Gogh probably did send to Pont-Aven, given the provenance, which is not the family collection. See Roskill 1971, p. 159 (n. 89). Feilchenfeldt identified Garden with flowers (F 578 / JH 1538 [2686]) as the painting of a garden that Jo van Gogh-Bonger sold to Cassirer in March 1908, but that was another work: Daubigny’s garden (F 814 / JH 2107). See Feilchenfeldt 1988, p. 105, and Account book 2002, pp. 52, 148.
It is impossible to identify the last work that he sent. The ‘still life of old peasants’ shoes’ was Shoes (F 461 / JH 1569 [2707]), but since that was owned by Jo van Gogh-Bonger one can conclude that it was not sent. It is not clear what the ‘small landscape of nothing at all, in which there’s nothing but a bit of an expanse’ was (see letter 696, n. 13). Cf. also Dorn’s identification of the works in the batch in exhib. cat. Essen 1990, pp. 110-112.
[2262] [2261] [2715] [2700] [2696] [2712] [2686] [2686] [2707]
2. See letter 697, n. 10, for Bernard’s album of drawings titled At the brothel.
3. The sketches A prostitute washing herself [2232] and Two prostitutes at a table [2227] from At the brothel [2220].
[2232] [2227] [2220]
4. See letter 697, n. 10, for Bernard’s poem.
5. Van Gogh had written to Bernard about his painting The night café (F 463 / JH 1575 [2711]) in a letter that is now lost and in letter 684.
[2711]
6. This study is not known. On the basis of the size it could be Brothel scene (F 478 / JH 1599 [3006]), which is a no. 6 canvas (33 x 41 cm). However, Van Gogh says that he had set the study in the night café, where he had painted F 463 [2711], and the interior in F 478 [3006] does not resemble it. What’s more, the scene does not match the description Van Gogh gives here. It is therefore more likely that F 478 is the rough sketch that Van Gogh painted in November 1888 and mentioned in letter 718. Cf. also Dorn 1990, p. 249 (n. 52) and exhib. cat. Chicago 2001, pp. 195, 387 (n. 114).
[3006] [2711] [3006]
7. Vincent told Theo about his second, abortive attempt to paint a Christ without a model on 21 September (letter 685). At the beginning of September he had painted ‘a poet’ with a starry sky from a model: Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574 [2710]).
[2710]
8. Van Gogh wanted Bernard to have Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558 [2700]) (see n. 11 below). The latter’s attachment to it is clear from the fact that at first he did not want to sell it, nor the Self-portrait with a straw hat (F 526 / JH 1309 [2552]), because ‘I’m attached to it as much as a souvenir of friendship as I am as a painting’ (j’y tiens autant comme souvenir d’amitié que comme peinture). Letter from Bernard to his father, 28 January 1900 (Bernard lettres 2012, no. 249). In an act of homage to Van Gogh, Bernard portrayed himself in front of the painting in his Self-portrait of 1892 (private collection).
[2700] [2552]
9. The study in red and green would have been the ‘red sunset’ mentioned later in this letter (see n. 15 below). Van Gogh described it in letter 696 as ‘a landscape angry with a nasty mistral’ (un paysage en colère de mistral méchant).
10. The old mill (F 550 / JH 1577 [2712]), which once belonged to Chamaillard. See Correspondance Gauguin 1984, p. 503. We do not know whether Van Gogh received anything in return; there is an oil sketch by Chamaillard View of a harbour, in the estate, but it is dedicated ‘à l’ami Gauguin’ (to my friend Gauguin).
[2712]
11. The painting Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558 [2700]) is signed and dedicated ‘Vincent / à Emile Bernard’ (most of the inscription has been removed).
[2700]
12. Ernest Ponthier de Chamaillard.
13. Van Gogh originally wrote: ‘amoureux assez’ (amorous enough).
14. Anquetin had spent the summer in Etrépagny (Normandy).
15. This painting, a ‘study in red and green’ (n. 9 above), is not known; it is probably the work that Van Gogh described in letter 680 as ‘a landscape with factory, and an enormous sun in a red sky, above red roofs, in which nature seems to be in a rage, on a day of nasty mistral’, but the descriptions do not completely match. He may have worked on it again in the meantime, and painted out the sun.
16. 5 avenue de Beaulieu was the Bernards’ address in Asnières.
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