A bathroom

A bathroom

Within its labyrinth, the Louvre contains a horde of nooks and crannies whose sudden appearance along your way depends upon fortunate coincidence. You then come upon a treasure that you will ritually lead your friends to discover ever after. On this day, coming to the far end of a vestibule that seemed to lead to nothing more than a storage room, I noticed a window from which you could see the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the distance, or rather its effigy traced upon the screen concealing the scaffolding during the restoration of the monument. I stepped closer, and I was astonished to find on my left a closet containing a small bathroom, narrow and delightful, decorated by Corot for his friend François-Parfait Robert, an investigating judge in Mantes (Sully, room 947). All the little room’s walls are filled with views of Italy: Venice, Rome, Naples, Genoa, and Lake Nemi, where I have never been. To take a bath surrounded by Corot’s paintings—now that’s a pleasure fit for a magistrate! This cabinet will remain one of my favorite haunts in the Louvre, a nook of my own. I have already returned to it often.