In "The Innocents Adrift," a fictionalized account of his 1891 boat trip down the Rhone River, Mark Twain admitted to being puzzled by the adulation accorded Leonardo's Mona Lisa. To him, it seems "merely a good representation of a serene & subdued face. . . . The complexion was bad; in fact it was not even human; there are no people of that color." One of his companions even characterizes the painting as "that smoked haddock!" After some discussion, the travelers concede that it requires a "trained eye" to appreciate certain aspects of art.
      Albert Bigelow Paine published a much abridged and edited version of "The Innocents Adrift" as "Down the Rhône" in 1923. The original 174-page manuscript, left unfinished by Mark Twain, is in the Mark Twain Papers.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa. 1503-1506. Louvre, Paris. Scan by Mark Harden.