In Scott's Paris Revisited (A. D. 1815), we have the following
interesting particulars of the removal of the celebrated pictures and
statues from this famous emporium of the fine arts.
"Every day new arrivals of strangers poured into Paris, all anxious to
gain a view of the Louvre, before its collection was broken up; it was
the first point to which all the British directed their steps every
morning, in eager curiosity to know whether the business of removal had
commenced. The towns and principalities, that had been plundered, were
making sedulous exertions to influence the councils of the allies to
determine on a general restoration; and several of the great powers
leaned decidedly towards such a decision.
"Before actual force was employed, representations were repeated to the
French government, but the ministers of the king of France would neither
promise due satisfaction, nor uphold a strenuous opposition. They showed
a sulky disregard of every application. A deputation from the
Netherlands formally claimed the Dutch and Flemish pictures taken during
the revolutionary wars from those countries; and this demand was
conveyed through the Duke of Wellington, as commander-in-chief of the
Dutch and Belgian armies. About the same time, also, Austria determined
that her Italian and German towns, which had been despoiled, should have
their property replaced, and Canova, the anxious representative of Rome,
after many fruitless appeals to Talleyrand, received assurances that he,
too, should be furnished with an armed force sufficient to protect him
in taking back to that venerable city, what lost its highest value in
its removal from thence.
"Contradicting reports continued to prevail among the crowds of
strangers and natives as to the intentions of the allies, but on
Saturday, the 23d of September, all doubt was removed. On going up to
the door of the Louvre, I found a guard of one hundred and fifty British
riflemen drawn up outside. I asked one of the soldiers what they were
there for? 'Why, they tell me, sir, that they mean to take away the
pictures,' was his reply. I walked in amongst the statues below, and on
going to the great staircase, I saw the English guard hastily trampling
up its magnificent ascent: a crowd of astonished French followed in the
rear, and, from above, many of the visitors in the gallery of pictures
were attempting to force their way past the ascending soldiers,
catching an alarm from their sudden entrance. The alarm, however, was
unfounded; but the spectacle that presented itself was very impressive.
A British officer dropped his men in files along this magnificent
gallery, until they extended, two and two, at small distances, from its
entrance to its extremity. All the spectators were breathless, in
eagerness to know what was to be done, but the soldiers stopped as
machines, having no care beyond obedience to their orders.
"The work of removal now commenced in good earnest: porters with
barrows, and ladders, and tackles of ropes made their appearance. The
collection of the Louvre might from that moment be considered as broken
up for ever. The sublimity of its orderly aspect vanished: it took now
the melancholy, confused, desolate air of a large auction room, after a
day's sale. Before this, the visitors had walked down its profound
length with a sense of respect on their minds, influencing them to
preserve silence and decorum, as they contemplated the majestic
pictures; but decency and quiet were dispelled when the signal was given
for the breaking up of the establishment. It seemed as if a nation had
become ruined through improvidence, and was selling off.
"The guarding of the Louvre was committed by turns to the British and
Austrians, while this process lasted. The Prussians said that they had
done their own business for themselves, and would not now incur odium
for others. The workmen being incommoded by the crowds that now rushed
to the Louvre, as the news spread of the destruction of its great
collection, a military order came that no visitors should be admitted
without permission from the foreign commandant of Paris. This direction
was pretty much adhered to by the sentinels as far as the exclusion of
the French, but the words _Je suis Anglais_, were always sufficient to
gain leave to pass from the Austrians: our own countrymen were rather
more strict, but, in general, foreigners could, with but little
difficulty, procure admission. The Parisians stood in crowds around the
door, looking wistfully within it, as it occasionally opened to admit
Germans, English, Russians, &c., into a palace of their capital from
which they were excluded. I was frequently asked by French gentlemen,
standing with ladies on their arms, and kept back from the door by the
guards, to take them into their own Louvre, under my protection as an
unknown foreigner! It was impossible not to feel for them in these
remarkable circumstances of mortification and humiliation; and the
agitation of the French public was now evidently excessive. Every
Frenchman looked a walking volcano, ready to spit forth fire. Groups of
the common people collected in the space before the Louvre, and a
spokesman was generally seen, exercising the most violent
gesticulations, sufficiently indicative of rage, and listened to by the
others, with lively signs of sympathy with his passion. As the packages
came out, they crowded round them, giving vent to torrents of _pestes_,
_diables_, _sacres_, and other worse interjections.
"Wherever an Englishman went, in Paris, at this time, whether into a
shop or a company, he was assailed with the exclamation, _'Ah! vos
compatriotes!'_ and the ladies had always some wonderful story to tell
him, of an embarrassment or mortification that had happened to _his_
duke; of the evil designs of the Prince Regent, or the dreadful revenge
that was preparing against the injuries of France. The great gallery of
the Louvre presented every fresh day a more and more forlorn aspect; but
to the reflecting mind, it combined a number of interesting points of
view. The gallery now seemed to be the abode of all the foreigners in
the French capital:--we collected there, as a matter of course, every
morning--but it was easy to distinguish the last comers from the rest.
They entered the Louvre with steps of eager haste, and looks of anxious
inquiry; they seemed to have scarcely stopped by the way--and to have
made directly for the pictures on the instant of their reaching Paris.
The first view of the stripped walls made their countenances sink under
the disappointment, as to the great object of their journey. Crowds
collected round the _Transfiguration_--that picture which, according to
the French account, _destiny_ had always intended for the French nation:
it was every one's wish to see it taken down, for the fame which this
great work of Raffaelle had acquired, and its notoriety in the general
knowledge, caused its departure to be regarded as the consummation of
the destruction of the picture gallery of the Louvre. It was taken away
among the last.
"Students of all nations fixed themselves round the principal pictures,
anxious to complete their copies before the workmen came to remove the
originals. Many young French girls were seen among these, perched upon
small scaffolds, and calmly pursuing their labors in the midst of the
throng and bustle. When the French gallery was thoroughly cleared of the
property of other nations, I reckoned the number of pictures which then
remained to it, and found that the total left to the French nation, of
the fifteen hundred pictures which constituted their magnificent
collection, was _two hundred and seventy-four_! The Italian division
comprehended about eighty-five specimens; these were now dwindled to
_twelve_: in this small number, however, there are some very exquisite
pictures by Raffaelle, and other great masters. Their Titians are much
reduced, but they keep the Entombment, as belonging to the King of
France's old collection, which is one of the finest by that artist. A
melancholy air of utter ruin mantled over the walls of this superb
gallery: the floor was covered with empty frames: a Frenchman, in the
midst of his sorrow, had his joke, in saying, 'Well, we should not have
left to _them_ even these!' In walking down this exhausted place, I
observed a person, wearing the insignia of the legion of honor, suddenly
stop short, and heard him exclaim, '_Ah, my God--and the Paul Potter,
too!_' This referred to the famous painting of a bull by that master,
which is the largest of his pictures, and is very highly valued. It
belonged to the Netherlands, and has been returned to them. It was said
that the emperor Alexander offered fifteen thousand pounds for it.
"The removal of the statues was later in commencing, and took up more
time; they were still packing these up when I quitted Paris. I saw the
Venus, the Apollo, and the Laocoön removed: these may be deemed the
presiding deities of the collection. The solemn antique look of these
halls fled forever, when the workmen came in with their straw and
Plaster of Paris, to pack up. The French could not, for some time, allow
themselves to believe that their enemies would dare to deprive them of
these sacred works; it appeared to them impossible that they should be
separated from France--from _la France_--the country of the Louvre and
the Institute; it seemed a contingency beyond the limits of human
reverses. But it happened, nevertheless: they were all removed. One
afternoon, before quitting the place, I accidentally stopped longer than
usual, to gaze on the Venus, and I never saw so clearly her superiority
over the Apollo, the impositions of whose style, even more than the
great beauties with which they are mingled, have gained for it an
inordinate and indiscriminating admiration. On this day, very few, if
any of the statues had been taken away--and many said that France would
retain them, although she was losing the pictures. On the following
morning I returned, and the pedestal on which the Venus had stood for so
many years, the pride of Paris, and the delight of every observer, was
vacant! It seemed as if a soul had taken its flight from a body."