Monna Lisa

This young artist [Frederic Leighton] is one of [Luigi] Lanzi’s and [Giorgio] Vasari’s men. He has plainly drunk long and eagerly at the Painter’s Castaly: the fount of beauty and of grace that assuaged the thirst of those who painted the “Monna Lisa” and the “Belle Gardinière;” who modelled the “Horned Moses” and the “Slave;” who designed Peter’s great Basilica, and the [Lorenzo] Ghiberti Gates at Florence.

1858 May 3, “Exhibition of the Royal Academy. [Second Notice.]”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 888, London, →OCLC, page 6, column 1

When the crowd reads Hamlet or stares at the Monna Lisa, it acts in obedience to authority — to the authority of the critics; it has ceased to be a mob, it recognizes the word of command, given by Lessing, Sainte-Beuve, Matthew Arnold, or Ruskin, and marches, as to military music, rank upon rank, in orderly sequence, and salutes the world’s masterpieces.

1905 July, Henry Dwight Sedgwick, “The Mob Spirit in Literature”, in The Atlantic Monthly, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Sep 2022

There is absolutely no foundation for the story printed in America on the authority of the Cri de Paris that Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Monna Lisa” portrait has been stolen from the Louvre and has passed into the possession of a millionaire collector in New York.

1910 July 24, “Monna Lisa Not Stolen. Story of Theft of Famous Painting from Louvre Without Foundation.”, in The New York Times (Transatlantic Wireless and Cable News section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jul 2025, page 2, column 6

Walter Pater’s wonderful description of the painting, “Monna Lisa,” was applicable to the women characters in Conrad’s novels. Such characters as Mrs. Travers in “The Rescue,” Arlette in “The Rover,” or Flora de Barral in “Chance,” had a poignant beauty born out of strange melancholy, and a certain foreknowledge of the destinies of mankind which made them fitting symbols of fate.

1925 December 4, “O.U.E. Lecture at Winton: Joseph Conrad”, in Bournemouth Daily Echo, number 7829, Bournemouth, Dorset, →OCLC, page 4, column 3

Leonardo Da^([sic]) Vinci’s great painting, “Monna Lisa,” worth $5,000,000, was stolen from the Louvre, Paris, 20 years ago.

1931 August 24, “Flashbacks (from Post-Gazette Files)”, in Oliver J. Keller, editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, volume 5, number 20, Pittsburgh, Pa.: P-G Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, columns 6–7