Gros, from whose Plague of Jaffa Delacroix had noticeably borrowed, called it "the massacre of painting".[15] Ingres said the painting exemplified the 'fever and epilepsy' of modern art.[16] Critics Girodet and Thiers were, however, more flattering, and the painting was sufficiently well regarded for the state to purchase it the same year for the Musée du Luxembourg for 6000 francs. The purchase provoked internal conflicts in the Restoration arts administration, however, when the Comte de Forbin, director of the royal museums, bought the painting without the King's official approval, an irregular and politically risky procedure.[17] In November 1874 it was transferred to the Musée du Louvre.[18]