3. We do not know which work this is. It was previously assumed that it was Head of a woman (F 206 / JH 972). While it is true that the flesh tones do correspond, no lilac has been found in the clothes (in so far as any clothes are visible in this portrait) and the background is not ‘greyish yellow’. See cat. Amsterdam 2011.

4. The Museum voor Schone Kunsten has various works by Rubens and Jordaens; see letter 544, and cat. Antwerp 1988, pp. 203-207, 318-331.

5. See for Rubens, St Theresa : letter 544, n. 8.

6. At that time the River Scheldt bordered Antwerp to the west.

7. This inn must have been opposite the ‘Vlaams Hoofd’, which was also known as Sint-Anna or Sint-Anneke. In the period from 1880 to 1930 it was a village on the west bank of the Scheldt, where there were various entertainment venues, with bars, mussel stalls and restaurants. Among the best known were De Roose and Het Oude Belvédère. See Frans Lauwers, Oud Sint-Anneke herleeft. Deurne and Antwerp 1983, esp. pp. 36, 98, 103-104.

8. The Cathedral of Our Lady, the largest church in Antwerp, is in the Grote Markt in the old city centre, not far from the bank of the Scheldt.

9. Petrus (Piet) Joannes Tyck, paint merchant and manufacturer at number 8 Rubensstraat (district 3). On 31 December 1885 he moved to number 35 Blindenstraat (SAA).

10. As part of the World Exhibition that was staged in Antwerp from 2 May to 2 November 1885, there was a ‘World Exhibition of Fine Arts’. The organizers – the Koninklijke Maatschappij ter Aanmoediging van Schoone Kunsten te Antwerpen – bought the exhibited works for a lottery after the exhibition closed; the tickets cost 1 franc each. The draw for the 95 works that were purchased in 1885 was held on 14 December. The works were exhibited together for one last time prior to this draw – from Sunday, 6 December. See exhib. cat. Antwerp 1885, p. xix. An appendix bound into the catalogue, ‘Tableaux’, lists all the paintings in the lottery and the winning ticket numbers, sometimes with the winner’s name. See also Handelsblad van Antwerpen, 5 December, 6-7 December and 13-14 December 1885 and exhib. cat. Antwerp 1993, pp. 214-218.

11. Van Gogh must be referring here to a ‘public sale of a collection of old and modern paintings, all guaranteed authentic’ which took place on Monday, 14 December in the Verlat Rooms in Twaalf Maandenstraat, which was advertised in the Handelsblad van Antwerpen of 12 December 1885. The viewing was on 13 and 14 December from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.

12. Ferdinand de Braekeleer the Elder (cf. letter 544).

13. Since there were no paintings by Henri de Braekeleer among the works in the lottery, Van Gogh must be referring here to paintings that were auctioned in the Verlat Rooms. The former could be The sleeping model (formerly the property of Jef Dillen), The adornment (private collection) or The meal (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten). See Todts 1988, pp. 155, 205-206.

14. This painting is not known.

16. Van Gogh saw this painting and the two referred to below at the lottery exhibition. Charles Mertens’s The etcher’s studio, 1885, was exhibited at the World Exhibition under the title Printer’s workshop. See exhib. cat. Antwerp 1885, p. 34, cat. no. 247. Illustrated in the sale catalogue J.B. Christoffel Collection, Antwerp (Guillaume Campo), 9-10 February 1965, no. 33. Ill. 2171

17. Pieter Verhaert, The engraver (present whereabouts unknown). See exhib. cat. Antwerp 1885, p. 55, cat. no. 402.

18. Adriaan Philippus de la Rivière, Van Staveren Jr, Rotterdam undertaker’s man (present whereabouts unknown); it was therefore not an Amsterdam undertaker as Van Gogh assumed. See exhib. cat. Antwerp 1885, p. 21, cat. no. 112. Cf. also Catalogus van de tentoonstelling der kunstwerken van levende meesters bestemd voor de tentoonstelling te Antwerpen. Exhib. cat. Amsterdam (Arti et Amicitiae), April 1885. Amsterdam 1885, p. 13, cat. no. 138.

19. See for Frans Hals, Fisher boy : letter 544, n. 9.

20. Copy of 1651 after Rembrandt’s Saskia van Uylenburgh . see letter 131, n. 25. At that time authorities like E.J.T. Thoré regarded it as an autograph replica by Rembrandt.

21. See for the expression ‘beyond the paint’: letter 439, n. 3.

22. On 30 November 1885 the French journalist Albert Bataille, ‘chroniqueur judiciaire’ of Le Figaro, wrote an article for the paper headed ‘La loi sur les récidivistes’ about how to proceed against criminals who repeatedly offend. This article has not been traced in L’Etoile Belge.

23. On 19 September 1885 Bataille followed the trial of Jeanne Marie Lorette in Amsterdam; a day later he was present at the large-scale demonstration for universal suffrage in The Hague (Dagblad De Amsterdammer 19 and 21 September 1885).

On 30 September both the Algemeen Handelsblad and De Amsterdammer reported on an article that Bataille had published in response to these events in the previous day’s Figaro. The Algemeen Handelsblad printed a brief summary of the piece, from which it appears that Bataille was warning against a too overtly revolutionary trend in the Netherlands and the danger that the moderate social democrats would allow themselves to be eclipsed by the real socialists. The comment in the Handelsblad that Bataille’s article also contained ‘many mistaken opinions’ lends force to the notion that this was the subject of the polemic between him and the Dutch journalists to which Van Gogh refers in his letter; there really were revolutionary tendencies in the Netherlands at this time.

Van Gogh, who had been in Amsterdam for a few days in September, must have heard or read about this topical issue.