Letter from the photographer Charles Clifford to the British Minister in Madrid reporting that he has photographed the pictures [in the Royal Museum in Madrid] and will send the plates and photographs to the Embassy shortly.

Clifford reports that he has spent two days photographing the three pictures [in the Royal Museum] as requested. They are very 'unphotographic' because of the colours, the varnish and 'the indispensable strong yellow tinge of age', but he thinks his photographs very successful nonetheless. The Director was polite and cooperative but watched him closely as if the photography were merely the first step towards 'an invasion...for the purpose of carrying them off, in imitation of our neighbours'. Clifford remarks that the Spaniards do not understand photography for art's sake; they think people are after the nation's riches. He states that he will send the prints and the plates to Buchanan and that he has received 'the other glass' [the plate of the photograph taken of the Duke of Alba's Raphael portrait].