1. Theo had written about the two Dutch artists Isaäcson and De Haan in letter 708.

2. It emerges from Van Gogh’s correspondence that Arles had street lighting and the cafés had gaslight (see e.g. letters 656 and 691).

3. Gauguin had said that he would be setting out for Arles on 20 October (letter 706).

4. See letter 11, n. 8, for Emile Wauters, The painter Hugo van der Goes in the red cloister , depicting the mentally-ill fifteenth-century painter. Van Gogh had previously compared himself to both the painter and the abbot in the picture; see letter 650.

5. ‘Your second letter’ refers to letter 708, in which Theo promised to send Vincent two photographs of drawings by De Haan.

a. Read: ‘n’y en a-t-il’.

6. The letter sketch Row of cypresses with a couple strolling (‘The poet’s garden’) (F - / JH 1616) is after the painting of the same title F 485 / JH 1615 .

7. The other three paintings of the ‘poet’s garden’ were The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’), (F 468 / JH 1578 ), a now lost painting of the park (cf. the drawing The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 1465 / JH 1583) and the letter sketch in letter 693) for the composition) and The public garden with a couple strolling (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 479 / JH 1601 ). See also letter 703, n. 10.

b. Read: ‘un peu plus’ or ‘plus’.

8. See letter 583, n. 9, for Daudet’s Tartarin de Tarascon.