Although Louis XIV.’s well-known grudge against Holland probably accounted for the almost entire absence of Dutch pictures from the Crown possessions, Louis XVI. had the good taste to acquire works by Aelbert Cuyp (No. 2341, _Landscape_); Jan van Goyen (No. 2375, _Banks of a Dutch River_, and No. 2377, _A River in Holland_); B. van der Helst (No. 2394, _The Officers of the Arquebusiers of St. Sebastian_); G. Metsu (No. 2461, _The Alchemist_); Adriaen van Ostade (No. 2495, _The Painter’s Family_[?], and No. 2496, _The Schoolmaster_); Isaac van Ostade (No. 2510, _A Frozen Canal in Holland_); Rembrandt (No. 2539, _The Pilgrims at Emmaus_, No. 2540, and No. 2541, _The Philosopher in Meditation_, No. 2555, _Portrait of Rembrandt aged_); Jacob van Ruisdael (No. 2559, _Landscape_, and No. 2560, _Sunny Landscape_); Terborgh (No. 2587, _The Military Gallant_); and Philips Wouverman (No. 2621, _The Prize Ox_, and No. 2625, _The Stag Hunt_). Five of the less important of Murillo’s pictures now in the Louvre (Nos. 1712-15 and No. 1717) were also acquired at this period, and the series of twenty-two large canvases illustrating _Scenes from the Life of St. Bruno_ by Eustache Le Sueur were also purchased by Louis XVI. From 1725 onwards the Salon held its Exhibitions in the Salon Carré (Room IV.), but after 1848 this room was used only for Paintings by the Old Masters. In 1790 a Commission was appointed by the National Assembly “to register and watch over all that was most valuable,” and on May 26, 1791 a decree was made that the Louvre should be thenceforward dedicated to the conservation of objects of science and of art. On August 26 of the same year a further Commission was appointed by the National Convention to inspect and gather together the treasures of art scattered through _les maisons royales_. The Convention decided that the “Museum of the Republic” should be officially opened in the Long Gallery of the Louvre on August 10, 1793, and from November 8 of the same year the Museum was open to the inspection of the public three days in every ten. This, the first public exhibition of art treasures in the Louvre, was the foundation of the present institution. The Catalogue of this date contains reference to only 537 pictures, the greater number of which came from Paris churches and national buildings. The inhabitants of Versailles now petitioned that their town should not be despoiled of its pictures, “and so be deprived of its last attraction in the eyes of the world”!