So I hope to meet you soon, which I look forward to with great eagerness, also because I sketched two drawings at Rappard’s, ‘The lamp-bearers’ and ‘The bearers of the burden’,2 the further execution of which I wanted to discuss with you. To finish them I must, one way or another, have the necessary models, and then I’m confident that something good will come of them, namely a couple of compositions that I can show to Smeeton Tilly3 or the people from L’Illustration or suchlike.

So I’m leaving today and am telling you this lest you should perhaps look for me in Brussels. In Etten I’d like to make a few sketches on the heath, which is why I’m going a couple of days earlier.4

So I hope we see each other soon, and shake your hand in thought.