Friday, 7 September 1883

To spend an entire afternoon irritated by people with whom it is impossible to be angry! Louis does not pose at all, while remaining in his place opposite me; Marcel sings and Claire paints away, chatting and responding to her brothers’ laughter and kicks and nudges. And I seethe in silence. And that is what passes for sitting for a portrait. Well… I am tired and unwell — I want to leave…
He has just punished twenty thousand people at Batavia. And God… And God…
Well, so be it — I cannot live without God.

Notes

The eruption of Krakatoa (26–27 August 1883), whose tidal waves swept the coasts of the Sunda Strait near Batavia (now Jakarta); the official toll was later put at about 36,000 dead. ↩