1. Theo was to turn 17 on 1 May.

2. Saying, meaning that someone who acts virtuously can have a clear conscience; cf. Luke 9:62.

3. The reproduction after the painting Girl holding a sword (1872) by Gustave Jean Jacquet was published by Goupil & Co. The photograph, Jeune fille tenant une épée, was preserved in Theo’s scrapbook (FR t*1488, 24). Ill. 1698 . Van Gogh sent the same photograph to his sister Lies for her birthday on 16 May (FR b2708).

4. Nothing is known about this painting, which supposedly needed cleaning, by the Dutch landscape painter Jacobus van Gorkom Jr.

5. Anton Mauve and Jet Carbentus had become engaged shortly before this; see letter 21.

6. Contact with respectable families was encouraged. Mr van Gogh was pleased with Theo’s reception at the Haanebeeks’: ‘We think it wonderful that you are now well and truly accepted by the Haanebeeks. Just do your best to be on as good a footing there as Vincent was. They are really such good and respectable people, and it’s also good for your further education to associate with such people’ (FR b2696, 21 April 1874).

7. De Vink is a small village near The Hague.

8. The couple Abraham Pompe and Elisabeth Hubertha van Gogh, a sister of Mr van Gogh, had three sons (all from Pompe’s first marriage to Maria Quirina Alida ’s Graeuwen): Jan, Willem Lodewijk and Jacobus Cornelius Matthias. When this letter was written, they were still living in The Hague, but their move to Kampen (on 9 June 1874) was imminent (GAK).

9. The Van Goghs were related to the Van de Sande Bakhuyzens. Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the great-grandfather of Julius van de Sande Bakhuyzen, was married to Jannetje van Gogh. See exhib. cat. The Hague 1997, pp. 72-73. They stayed in touch with the Bakhuyzens, and in October and November 1874 Mr van Gogh encouraged Theo to visit them (FR b2723 and b2730).