Dr. Lucien Boissonnas, in a letter dated April 1995, writes 'In this spirited little composition, Adam Töpffer recalls his own experience of both the Louvre (1798, 1812, 1822) and the Royal Academy (1816) exhibitions in which he has participated. His long practice as a caricaturist, dating back to the late 1790's and never since abandoned - even if restricted to a select public - shows here in some of the strongly characterized features: the stout, rosy and bespectacled connoisseurs, the two artists (in front with a barbiche and in the middle group with a fur-cap), the philistine bourgeois with their haut-de-forme hats on, the (jesuit?) priest who only allows himself a cursory glance, etc.'

In one of his witty letters to his wife written in 1803 after a visit to the Louvre, Adam Töpffer concludes a brilliant account of the varied public of artists and amateurs he has seen, 'En vérité ce Museum est un endroit admirable comme tu vois, sous tous les rapports. [...] Les tableaux au reste ne sont pas la seule chose que j'y étudie, il y a encore les opinions, les jugements, les moeurs de mes confrères, le Public quand il remplit les salles [...].'

To be included in Dr. Lucien Boissonnas' forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Töpffer