Benjamin Haydon letter to Leigh Hunt, June 6, 1814

              Paris June 6 1814  
The moment Wilkie and I had placed our trunks in our hotel, down we  sallied to the Louvre -- the gallery of Pictures was short, but we walked about & contemplated this building in its various [?] there is something grand in the extension of its Square, but  the building itself is petit small windows by thousands & chimneys by hundreds make it look more like a model in wood for  a large building, that the actual exciting  & alure [sic] itself This was my impression - in the middle Buonaparte has erected a Triumphal Arch, an exact copy of the arch of Titus, and which is not an exact copy, [?does] no longer but rather disgrace to French art-- upon the top is  a triumphal [?can] gilded, to which he has yoked the four Bronze horses he took from Venice, and on each side is a Victory grappling their bridles -- the whole is /-/gilt, and has a shewy, but not a sublime look, the shafts of the Columns are reddest marble, [?these capitals & baner], of bronze, to me, it is childish, & useless-- the long, line of [?vein] from this Arch, down the [?Thuilleres] gardens through the [?Champ's][?] to the Arc-triumphate at the other end is certainly very long but that is all, there is nothing natural or affecting in such rope walks after [?rarenting] about till night, we went to bed,  and at ten the day after was at the Louvre door to be quite sure about I had gone down about six; and had enquired of a national guard, who with the most gentlemanly manner, entered into conversation about England, & the war, about Buonaparte & the Revolution, and I can tell you in a way my dear Hunt, that would have surprised you, to meet with, in a militia man in England -- I kept thinking as I went down, am I going to see the Transfiguration --  And there I had a sort of Whirl in my head -- am I really? -- on I walked -- on I walked -- the first thing that convinced me I was at the Louvre was the politeness of the attendant at the door, who without looking through yet for half a [?canon], as with us took my umbrella & opened the door; I jumped two steps, -- again the Transfiguration darted into my brain, and & [sic] I was angry at my own tardiness, -- away I went three steps-- the Pietio martyre too-- -- four -- Corregio's St. Catherine -- five --  and breathless I came to the top --  in an instant I was in, and left Wilkie trotting on his usual pace -- the First glance of the [?whole] gallery -- disappointed me! -- so far from being affected -- I was as cool as could be --  there is nothing grand in the first glance, the gallery is on the same childish principle as their gardens, & & their /---/ palaces -- viz -- inordinate length, and instead of looking large -- it looked small and had the same effect on the mind, as when one looks through the wrong end of of [sic] a spy-glass -- Frankly I tell also the Transfiguration was not what I had expected to find -- in effect -- they have ruined the Picture by cleaning -- but it is only the effect they have ruined for the expressions are really Raphael's, and there I drank till my faculties were drowned -- There is a Corregio, there which no language in Heaven or Earth can do justice too [sic], it is simply a simple subject , but