1. In Nieuw-Amsterdam Van Gogh found a room in the lodging-house kept by Hendrik Scholte, in District E, no. 34 (later no. 47). He had evidently had an opportunity to move to a better room after he got back from Hoogeveen. On Scholte and his family: Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 161-169.

2. This is the bridge depicted in the watercolour Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (F 1098 / JH 425 ).

3. The occupant of this cradle was the youngest child in the Scholte family, Alida Wilhelmina, who was born on 17 April 1883.

a. Means: ‘ergens geen wijs uit kan worden, over iets in verwarring ben’ (can’t get a grip on something, am confused about something).

4. This carpenter was probably Willem Kiesenberg; cf. letter 241.

5. Anthon van Rappard made various works on the island, among them Old women in the West-Terschelling home : see letter 416, and cf. exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1974, pp. 84-85.

6. The Exposition Triennale (Triennial Exhibition) was a prestigious retrospective that the French government planned to stage once every three years as a counterweight to the Salon, which was controlled by artists. In 1883 (the only time the exhibition actually went ahead) the Triennale ran from 15 September to 31 October. See Mainardi 1993, pp. 91-120.

7. Liebermann had worked in Drenthe between August and October 1882; there are no indications that he was also there in 1883. Cf. exhib. cat. The Hague 1980.

b. Means: ‘in het vooruitzicht’ (in prospect).

8. This expression derives from Thomas Carlyle, On heroes, hero-worship and the heroic in history (1841). ‘It is an everlasting duty, valid in our day as in that, the duty of being brave’ (Carlyle 1993, p. 28). Carlyle saw the history of the world as the biography of great men. In his book he explains what is needed for a well-ordered society. Van Gogh copied out a passage from On heroes as early as 1875. See Pabst 1988, p. 25.

9. Cf. for the cocked hats worn by the ministers, the photograph printed with letter 391, n. 7; cf. for the comparison of people with animals: letter 291, n. 7.

10. Liebermann showed his La blanchisserie de Zweeloo (Hollande) (Bleaching field at Zweeloo (Holland)) at the 1883 Salon; Van Gogh mentions this painting in letter 402.

11. His accommodation address at Scholte’s.