English essays -- 19th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs; London (England) -- Description and travel
little tour numberless Paul Potters--the meadows streaked with sunshine
and spotted with the cattle, the city twinkling in the distance, the
thunderclouds glooming overhead. Napoleon carried off the picture (vide
Murray) amongst the spoils of his bow and spear to decorate his triumph
of the Louvre. If I were a conquering prince, I would have this picture
certainly, and the Raphael “Madonna” from Dresden, and the Titian
“Assumption” from Venice, and that matchless Rembrandt of the
“Dissection.” The prostrate nations would howl with rage as my gendarmes
took off the pictures, nicely packed, and addressed to “Mr. the Director
of my Imperial Palace of the Louvre, at Paris. This side uppermost.” The
Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Italians, &c., should be free to come and
visit my capital, and bleat with tears before the pictures torn from
their native cities. Their ambassadors would meekly remonstrate, and
with faded grins make allusions to the feeling of despair occasioned by
the absence of the beloved works of art. Bah! I would offer them a
pinch of snuff out of my box as I walked along my gallery, with their
Excellencies cringing after me. Zenobia was a fine woman and a queen,
but she had to walk in Aurelian's triumph. The procede was peu delicat?
En usez vous, mon cher monsieur! (The marquis says the “Macaba” is
delicious.) What a splendor of color there is in that cloud! What a
richness, what a freedom of handling, and what a marvellous precision!
I trod upon your Excellency's corn?--a thousand pardons. His Excellency
grins and declares that he rather likes to have his corns trodden on.
Were you ever very angry with Soult--about that Murillo which we have
bought? The veteran loved that picture because it saved the life of
a fellow-creature--the fellow-creature who hid it, and whom the Duke
intended to hang unless the picture was forthcoming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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