Concert at noon – a fine impression; “Hagen’s Watch” was repeated. R., however, is fatigued. Thereafter I visited, in the company of Prince Liechtenstein and Herr Standhartner, the picture gallery and the exhibition of flowers. – In the evening, Semper, very interesting, he literally comes alive in R.’s presence: a dizzying discourse on polychromy,[1] and a declared desire to depart from Vienna, “what is it to me if the Emperor builds himself a palace?” – The Germans are without a homeland; genius has no place in Germany.
[1] Refers to the ideas developed by Semper in his treatise “On Polychromy and Its Origins”, 1851.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.