1. The expression ‘ça ira’ goes back to the time of the French Revolution, when it was a well-known battle cry. ‘Ah! Ça ira!’ is the title of one of the most popular revolutionary songs. Best known is its refrain:

The song was still known in Van Gogh’s day, but he could also have come across the phrase in his reading, in literature on the French Revolution. He uses the expression again in letters 210, 232 and 397.

2. Van Gogh refers here to Van Rappard’s plans to go to Brussels to paint from nude models (l. 57).

3. Trains from Utrecht to Brussels passed through one of these two places, both of which are close to Etten.

4. Van Gogh’s wording suggests that Van Rappard has meanwhile become familiar with a small version of the drawing Man sitting by the fireplace (‘Worn out’) (F 863 / JH 34 ). This is F 864 / JH 51, which was folded and comes from Van Rappard’s estate. It must have been one of the sketches Van Gogh promised to send in letter 174; the sketch Sower with a sack mentioned later in this letter (see n. 7) was probably sent at the same time.

5. To visit Uncle Vincent van Gogh.

a. The expression is actually ‘een hart onder de riem steken’, meaning ‘to give someone encouragement or moral support’.

b. Meaning: ‘niets omhanden hebben’ (to have nothing to do, to be idle).

6. These drawings are no longer extant.

7. This remark indicates that Van Rappard had now seen the sketch Sower with a sack (F 857 / JH 32 ), made after the drawing of the same title, F 862 / JH 31, so that it could not have been sent with the present letter, as assumed in De brieven 1990. The sketch comes from Van Rappard’s estate. This is also an indication that Van Gogh had in fact sent Van Rappard the sketches promised in letter 174. See also n. 4 above.

8. The poem ‘The song of the shirt’ by Thomas Hood is about a poor seamstress who reflects on her sad fate: she is hungry, and works without rest from morning to night. She cannot even cry about it, because tears would hamper her sewing. The poem expresses the hope that her lament will reach the ears of wealthy employers who exploit their workers. It gained instant popularity when it first appeared in Punch (16 December 1843, Christmas Number). Evidently Van Gogh had just heard of the poem, probably having discovered it by some indirect route. This might have been Gustave Doré’s illustration to the poem – which Van Gogh could easily have seen some place – made for the edition of Hood’s Poems, London 1870. The poem is to be found in Thomas Hood, Poetical works. Ed. by Walter Jerrold. London 1906, pp. 625-626.

9. In the late 1870s the renowned Hague collector Willem Nicolaas Lantsheer was considered by the board of Arti et Amicitiae to be one of the most important art lovers in the Netherlands. A brother of Van Rappard’s mother, Suzanna Adriana Carolina Lantsheer, he undoubtedly showed appreciation for his nephew’s work. See Stolwijk 1998, pp. 345-346; exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, p. 11 and Nederlands Patriciaat 75 (1991), p. 185.

10. Shortly before this (on 4 October), Van Rappard had become a member of the artists’ society Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam. The two paintings of his that were displayed at the exhibition of Levende Meesters (Living Masters) were both priced at 150 guilders: Op eenzame paden (On lonely paths) and De botanische tuin te Brussel (The botanical gardens at Brussels) (cat. nos. 268-269). See exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1881, p. 22, and the enclosed price list, p. 3. Apparently a competition was held, and Van Rappard finished in 11th place (see letter 184).