1. Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562 ). See Van Tilborgh and Hendriks 2001, p. 21. It emerges from letter 736 that Gauguin wanted this canvas; he must have asked for it in the missing part of the present letter. Van Gogh’s answer to the present letter has not survived, but that he did indeed reply is apparent from Gauguin’s letter 737).

2. Sower with setting sun (F 422 / JH 1470 ); the other canvases with sowers were still in Arles.

3. Quinces, lemons, pears and grapes (F 383 / JH 1339 ).

4. The lithograph The potato eaters (F 1661 / JH 737 ) after the painting The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764 ).

5. On 5 January Gauguin had rented a studio at 16 rue Saint-Gothard. See exhib. cat. Washington 1988, p. 46.

6. Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581 ).

7. Regarding Gauguin’s Human miseries , see letter 717, n. 2.

8. The identity of this reliner is not known. This could refer to Contet, who in 1886 had taken over the business of Mrs Latouche; in any case, Gauguin had had canvases relined there in 1883. See letter 776, n. 30.

9. It is possible that with ‘clefs’ Gauguin meant the wedges used to tension a stretcher, but he could also have meant the stretchers themselves (‘chassis à clefs’).

10. Gauguin practised fencing and had given fencing lessons in Pont-Aven. In Avant et après he writes in detail on the art of fencing, boasting about his talent for it. See Gauguin 1923, pp. 188-196.