1. It is apparent from letter 850 that this patient was Madame Ginoux and that Van Gogh had visited her in Arles, where he must have gone on 18 or 19 January, since he was back in Saint-Rémy on 20 January (on which day he wrote letter 842 to the Ginouxs). Two days after the trip to Arles he had another attack, as Dr Peyron informed Theo (see Hulsker 1971, p. 41).

2. Women picking olives (F 655 / JH 1869 ).

3. This drawing is not known; Gauguin mentioned it in letter 840.

4. This echoes something Sensier wrote: ‘Millet, a man moved, but always wise’. See Sensier 1881, p. 176.

5. In connection with this consolation, compare the closing words of Sensier’s preface to La vie et l’oeuvre de J.-F- Millet: ‘That’s a painter who gives life to humble people, a poet who extols examples of unknown greatness, a man of good will who encourages and consoles’. Later on in the book, Sensier confessed: ‘When life brought me worries, I would go and look at Millet’s painting, and I would come away rested and consoled’. (Il y a là un peintre qui donne la vie aux humbles, un poète qui exalte les grandeurs ignorées, un homme de bien qui encourage et console’. Sensier schreef ook: ‘Quand la vie m’apportait des inquiétudes, j’allais voir la peinture de Millet, et je sortais reposé et consolé’. See Sensier 1881, pp. xi, 102.

6. Gauguin’s son Jean-René had fallen out of a window in Copenhagen; see letter 840.

7. Although their correspondence had come to a halt, Bernard still appeared to be interested in Van Gogh’s work. On 8 February 1890 he told Theo: ‘I want to see Vincent’s canvases’ (FR b1153). Cf. also letter 858.

8. It seems as if Van Gogh was trying to pair off his sister and Isaäcson, whom he thought a suitable husband for her (see letter 815). Perhaps he thought the same about Bernard, as suggested both by his remark earlier in this letter and by his detailed description of him in letter 827 to Willemien.