1. For this engagement announcement, see letter 731. Theo stayed from 5 to 13 January in the Netherlands; the engagement party took place on 9 January. Vincent sent the present letter to Amsterdam (cf. l. 206).

2. Félix Rey.

3. Van Gogh later added ‘et à mettre ensemble son fils et toi’ (and putting you and his son together). In May 1891 Cornelis Marinus van Gogh (Uncle Cor) transferred ownership of his bookshop and art dealership to his son Vincent, who carried on the business under the name C.M. van Gogh.

4. For the paintings in which C.M. van Gogh traded, see Stolwijk 1998, pp. 310-312.

5. The World Exhibition, held from 5 May to 5 November 1889.

6. Vincent had asked Theo to buy the engraving after Rembrandt’s Anatomy lesson for Rey; see letter 732, n. 14.

7. This Paris doctor was already mentioned in letter 732, n. 15.

8. For the collector and Maecenas Alfred Bruyas, see letter 726, n. 1.

9. Even though Van Gogh speaks of ‘the owner of my house’ (this was Marie Louise Verdier), it is more likely that he is referring to his agent Bernard Soulè. See letter 602, n. 19. The tobacconist was probably Charles Viany, who signed the petition against Van Gogh at the end of February: ‘Viany, retail tobacconist’ (Viany, receveur buraliste). His wife, Marie Ourtoule, was the ‘retail tobacconist of place Lamartine’ (débitante de tabac demeurant Place de Lamartine) in the summons drawn up in response to the petition. See letter 750, nn. 2 and 3 and Documentation (shortly before 27 February 1889).

10. Considering Van Gogh had earlier brought up the subject of Delacroix and complementary colours in connection with the doctors (see letter 732), he must be referring here to Théophile Silvestre’s Eugène Delacroix. Documents nouveaux (1864). In letter 722, moreover, he asked Theo whether De Haan and Isaäcson knew this book.

11. This remedy came from the physician François Vincent Raspail, who believed that illnesses were caused by parasites. He prescribed camphor as a general cure for all ailments, writing that ‘camphor has sleep-inducing properties’ (le camphre a la propriété de ramener le sommeil); to have this effect, however, the medicine must be ingested. The method described by Van Gogh was recommended by Raspail as a means of curbing masturbation. See Manuel annuaire de la santé. Paris 1886, pp. 89-92, 373.

12. Van Gogh’s correspondence reveals his increasing admiration for Degas, whom he saw as a professional and personal role model. See Kendall 1999, p. 31.

a. This probably means: ‘My clouded state prevents me from painting the women of Arles ‘pure’ (not poisonous)’.

13. Theo must have written that Gauguin had spoken well of Vincent’s Arles work to Degas. This passage about painting the women of Arles could indicate that Van Gogh was considering taking up the subject that had occupied him before his illness: the Berceuse (one of the women of Arles that he had painted).

14. Apparently Van Gogh had previously given a painting to Rivet, the brothers’ doctor in Paris. It is not known which work this was.

15. In 1884-1885 there had been a cholera epidemic in Marseille. The last plague epidemic in Western Europe was ‘the great plague’ of 1720-1722, which began in Marseille and spread over all of Provence. The passage was no doubt prompted by Dr Rey’s involvement in fighting the smallpox epidemic raging in Arles from October 1888 until the end of April 1889. In his report on this epidemic, Rey recorded 41 cases of infection and 6 deaths. The governors of the hospital praised his efforts in a ‘congratulatory note for his devotion [to duty]’ (note de félicitation pour son dévouement) (ACA).

16. Mrs van Gogh and Willemien lived in Breda.

17. Because Van Gogh also speaks here of Gauguin’s self-portrait, he is likely referring to his own Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581 ), which was in Gauguin’s possession (and not Gauguin’s Van Gogh painting sunflowers , as assumed in De brieven 1990).

18. Paul Gauguin, Self-portrait dedicated to Charles Laval (later to Eugène Carrière), 1888 (W384) (Washington, National Gallery of Art, Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon). Ill. 2144 . In Wildenstein 1963 this portrait was dated to 1889, but recent research has shown that Gauguin painted it in December 1888, on the canvas of coarse jute he had bought in Arles (see letters 717, n. 7 and 716, n. 8, and exhib. cat. Chicago 2001, pp. 247, 362-363.

19. For Gauguin’s Self-portrait with a portrait of Bernard, ‘Les misérables’ , see letter 692, n. 1. Van Gogh sent in exchange his self-portrait (n. 17 above). At the time, he told Theo that Gauguin looked ill and tormented in his self-portrait from Brittany (see letter 697).