There were a number of wall hangings of
silk from which the pictures had been removed. The candelabra was of
malachite. There were clumps of violet jasper, porphyry, lapis-lazuli,
aventurine and syenite scattered around as though the place had been
divested of its furnishings in a hurry. I have seen the same things
in the HERMITAGE when for architectural elegance, richness of
ornamentation and lavishness of decoration it was unequaled by any art
museum in the world.... While poking around among the piles of tables
and vases that were moved over to one corner I came across a box of
paintings that must have been STOLEN from St. Petersburg.[A] ... Here
is the _Madonna del Latte_ of Corregio, or a mighty good imitation,
that everyone remembers, from the Hermitage. Here is Rembrandt's
'_Girl with the Broom_,' the _Portrait of Sobieski_, and the
'_Farmyard_' of Paul Potter. Here is the '_Expulsion of Hagar_' by
Rubens in which Sarah wears a white handkerchief and yellow veil
around her head, with one of her hands resting on her hip and the
other encased in a blue sleeve raised in a threatening gesture toward
Hagar, and here is '_Celestine and her Daughter_ _in Prison_,' that
one NEVER forgets because of the controversy between the partisans of
Murillo and Velasquez over which of these two painters did the
work. And here is Lossenke's '_Sunrise on the Black Sea_,' Ugrimov's
'_Capture of Kazan_' and '_Election of Michael Romanov_,' in which the
artist reaches the heights of Oriental splendor in color, composition
and design.
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