1. See letter 711, n. 2, for Theo’s trip to Brussels. The letter from Vincent is 712 of about 25 October; he had sent the telegram straight away to tell Theo about Gauguin’s arrival on 23 October.
2. Theo had sent Gauguin 500 francs from the sale of his painting Breton women chatting [117]; see letter 711, n. 3.
[117]
a. Read: ‘excès’.
3. See letter 704, n. 1, for the batch of paintings Gauguin sent from Pont-Aven.
4. Henry Degroux, Charles’s son, was a member of the Belgian society of artists Les Vingt. As such he objected to Van Gogh’s participation in Les Vingt’s seventh Salon in 1890. He withdrew his own entry, ‘not wishing, as far as I am concerned, to find myself in the same room as the laughable vase of sunflowers by Mr Vincent, or by any other agent provocateur’ (ne voulant pas quant à moi, me trouver dans la même salle que l’inénarable [sic] pot de soleils de monsieur Vincent, ou de tout autre agent provocateur) as he wrote to Octave Maus. Les Vingt subsequently voted to exclude Degroux. See exhib. cat. Brussels 1993, p. 51.
b. Read: ‘habiter chez’.
5. Mrs van Gogh had sent Theo this letter for Vincent, which has not survived, on 25 October (FR b2423).
6. Vincent had put in a new order for canvas and paint in letter 710.
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