1. Mrs van Gogh had lived in Nuenen from June 1882 to March 1886.

2. Willemien, who lived with her mother at Herengracht 100 in Leiden, was registered from 4 May to 16 June 1890 as a ‘proefzuster’ (apprentice nurse) at the ‘Hôpital Wallon’ in Leiden. This hospital of the Walloon Church had been located at Rapenburg 12 since 1886. See GAL, Naamlijst van de verpleegsters en dienstpersoneel (List of names of the nurses and staff) 1887-1924; and Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg. Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. Vol. 4a: ‘Leeuwenhorst’. Leiden 1989, pp. 147-148.

3. Regarding Van Gogh’s last attack in Saint-Rémy, see letter 857, n. 1.

4. Theo wrote this in letter 876.

5. Paul Gachet’s wife, Blanche Elisa Castets, had died in 1875. Paul Gachet Jr was 16 years old; Marguerite was 20. They were both born on 21 June. See exhib. cat. Paris 1999, pp. 19 (n. 15), 80 (n. 4).

6. Andries Bonger had written to his parents on 4 May 1890: ‘Theo has gone to see the homœopath Love because of his cough. He hasn’t been at all well lately’ (FR b1851).

7. Cor, who worked for the Cornu Copia Gold Company in Germiston (near Johannesburg), became an official of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij (railway company) at Pretoria. He and Vincent were not close; cf. letter 600, n. 12.

8. Gachet had 26 paintings by Van Gogh in his possession. We know that he received a number of them from Van Gogh himself. Of the others, it is not known whether he received them from Vincent or from Theo (after Vincent’s death), or whether he acquired them elsewhere. For Gachet’s collection, see exhib. cat. Paris 1999.