The first time I saw Guernica at the Reina Sophia, I saw a lot of studies Picasso did before I came to the actual painting. It wasn’t a painting I was very familiar with, so I’d built up this whole narrative and expectations around what I was going to see, and had a completely different idea about what I thought the painting would be like, and was completely shocked when I saw the actual work because it was so different than what he actually painted. Given how very sad the real one is, I might have been happier had I stuck to my imagination.

edit: it’s the other big famous art museum in Madrid