1. This was letter 709, in which Vincent told Theo about his exhaustion and asked for extra money because of Gauguin’s impending arrival (in his last letter (710) he did not write about his health, so this cannot be the one meant here).

2. Theo probably made this trip specifically to reconnoitre the market for modern paintings in Brussels. Gauguin wrote to him on 27 October 1888: ‘I hope that your little journey has been useful as regards the cause which you have so nobly undertaken’ (J’espère que votre petit voyage a été bon pour la cause que vous avez si noblement entreprise). See Correspondance Gauguin 1984, p. 266.

3. Paul Gauguin, Breton women chatting, 1886 (W 237/ W 201) (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek). Ill. 117 . Theo had sold the work to Dupuis for 600 francs the day before. See Wildenstein 2001, p. 303 and Correspondance Gauguin 1984, p. 512.

4. At this time the art dealer Aimé François Désiré Diot had his gallery at 43 rue Laffitte. See exhib. cat. Paris 1988, p. 356.

a. Read: ‘habiter chez moi’.

5. De Haan moved in with Theo on 28 October (see letter 713). Theo wrote to Willemien on 6 December 1888 that Isaäcson was also spending every evening with them. ‘They are both very smart fellows as far as their brains are concerned, so that it’s interesting company. Because De Haan is delicate he stays home almost all the time, which means that rather more people come to us and we have a very agreeable time’ (FR b916). De Haan went to Pont-Aven in the first half of April 1889 (FR b1040); his departure was prompted by Theo’s impending move. See Brief happiness 1999, p. 130.

6. Probably a reference to what Vincent had written in letter 707: ‘It’s precisely a failing of the Dutch to call one thing absolutely good and another absolutely bad, when it’s nowhere near as inflexible as that’.