An exhibition and sale of the famous collection of the Duke of Orléans, which had opened on the 20th of May 1793 at the late Royal Academy, 125 Pall-Mall and included twelve sketches by Rubens, the Family of Charles the Fifth by VanDyke, The Cradle and the Windmill by Rembrandt and works by Raphael, Titian, Guido Reni, and the Carracci. Of his experience at the gallery, Hazlitt wrote, ‘A new sense came upon me, a new heaven and earth stood before me … From that time on I lived in a world of pictures’.

See The Times, 20 May 1793; Waagen, G.F., Works of Art and Artists in England (London, 1839); and P.P. Howe (ed.), The Complete Works of William Hazlitt (J.M. Dent and sons, London: 1930 -4).