1. Regarding the ‘Hôpital Wallon’, see letter 878, n. 2.

a. Read: ‘habite’.

2. Doctor Gachet (F 753 / JH 2007 ). Van Gogh describes this portrait later on in the letter.

3. Marguerite Gachet was 20 years old.

4. Paul Gachet’s wife, Blanche Elisa Castets, had died in 1875.

5. Doctor Gachet’s garden (F 755 / JH 1999 ).

6. Marguerite Gachet in the garden (F 756 / JH 2005 ). Van Gogh was to paint her portrait at the end of June: Marguerite Gachet at the piano (F 772 / JH 2048 ).

7. This flower painting is possibly Roses and anemones in a vase (F 764 / JH 2045 ), which probably displays turban buttercups and not anemones. See exhib. cat. Paris 1999, p. 82.

8. Church at Auvers (F 789 / JH 2006 ). It measures 94 x 74 cm.

9. Van Gogh made several paintings of this subject, but the comparison must refer primarily to The old church tower at Nuenen (‘The peasants’ churchyard’) (F 84 / JH 772 ).

10. Roses in a vase (F 681 / JH 1976 ), Roses in a vase (F 682 / JH 1979 ), Irises in a vase (F 678 / JH 1977 ) and Irises in a vase (F 680 / JH 1978 ).

11. Almond blossom (F 671 / JH 1891 ). It measures 73.5 x 92 cm. Vincent had sent the painting to Theo on 29 April; see letters 863 and 867.

12. From the description and the letter sketch occurring later in the letter, it emerges that Theo had Marie Ginoux (‘The Arlésienne’) (F 543 / JH 1895 ), after which Van Gogh made the letter sketch (F - / JH 1896) from memory.

13. The version of Marie Ginoux (‘The Arlésienne’) that Vincent took with him to Auvers and that Gachet therefore knew was F 540 / JH 1892 or F 541 / JH 1893 . See letter 877, n. 5.

14. It emerges later on in the letter that this was Self-portrait (F 627 / JH 1772 ).

15. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Inter Artes et Naturam (Between art and nature), 1890 (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen). Ill. 316. A smaller version is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Van Gogh had seen the large painting at the exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. See exhib. cat. Paris 1890-4, p. xxii, no. 718, and RM21. Van Gogh made the letter sketch (F - / JH -) from memory.

16. Andries Bonger had met Vincent on the evening of Sunday, 18 May. He wrote about it on 21 May 1890 to his parents: ‘Vincent the painter has already left. I spoke to him Sunday evening. He looks better than ever, and has become fat. He spoke very normally and cheerfully. I believe it’s good for him to be out of that asylum’ (FR b1852).