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V

And the funniest part of it is that you can only see half of the face and can just make out the hat and cloak. The one side of the face is in light and all the rest is in deep luminous shadow but he looks like a real person and as I said there is a realness about Rembrants portraits that no other painter ever got. They are what I call great. Then there about 30, I should think immense pictures by Rubens that are fine they represent the life of one of the Di Medici family beginning with the christening and going through her whole life. The last one being her reception by the Gods, which is very fine.

As I say Raphael's Madonnas I would not give a button for. I suppose my religious feeling is wanting. anyway they dont appeal to me and that is enough. The Louvre is an immense building in the form of a hollow square with one side projected about the length of the building beyond so it makes a figure like this [[image]] I should think it was four or five hundred feet square without this wing. There are archways in each side so you can drive across. It the court occupies a whole square and the court inside is all paved and benches about and grass plots near the building. It is a great resort for maids with children and dogs who play whip top. The children not the dogs

Transcription Notes:
First page is copied in reverse; cannot transcribe.