This was the director's mansion. Spender did not notice that, because of Oppenheimer's western connections, there was also the odd horse on the grounds. He continues: “He has beautiful paintings. As soon as we came in, he said: 'Now is the time to look at the van Gogh.' We went into his sitting room and saw a very fine van Gogh of a sun above a field almost entirely enclosed in shadows." At the end of my first interview with Oppenheimer, immediately after I had driven cross-country from Los Alamos in a convertible with a large hole in the roof and had been summoned to the interview while still covered in grime, he said to me that he and his wife had some pictures I might like to look at sometime. I wondered what he was talking about. Some months later I was invited to a party at the Oppenheimers, and realized that he was talking about a van Gogh. Some years later, I learned that this was part of a small collection he had inherited from his father to which he had never added.
这就是研究院主管的公寓。斯彭德没苻注意到，由于奥本海默的西方情结，他的庭院里还有一匹古怪的马。斯彭德接着写道：“奥本海默有漂亮的油画。我们刚一进来，他就说，‘现在是欣赏梵·高的时候了。’我们走进他的起居室，看到一幅优秀的梵·高作品，在画上太阳髙髙地悬挂在几乎完全被阴影所笼罩的田地上空。”在我驾着篷顶露个大洞的折篷汽车，翻山越岭从洛斯阿拉莫斯风尘仆仆赶来赴约的这次与奥本海默的首次见而结束的时候，他对我说他和他妻子有些画，也许我什么时候愿意看看。我那时不太明白他说的是什么样的画，几个月以后我受邀来到一个在奥本海默家里举办的晚会，才意识到他说的是一幅梵·高的画。几年以后，我了解到这是他从他父亲那儿继承的小规模收藏的一部分，他自己从来没有再增添过。
In his journal entry, Spender describes Oppenheimer's physical appearance: "Robert Oppenheimer is one of the most extraordinary-looking men I have ever seen. He has a head like that of a very small intelligent boy, with a long back to it, reminding one of those skulls which were specially elongated by the Egyptians. His skull gives an almost eggshell impression of fragility, and is supported by a very thin neck. His expression is radiant and at the same time ascetic.," Much of this description seems right to me except that it leaves out the fact that Oppenheimer did have the sunwrinkled look of someone who had spent a great deal of time outdoors, which he had.
斯彭德在日记中对奥本海默的相貌做了描述：“罗伯特·奥本海默是我见过的样貌最奇特的人之一。他的头就像一个聪明的小孩的头，后脑勺很长，让人想到被埃及人特意拉长的那些脑壳。他的脑壳给人的感觉像脆弱易碎的鸡蛋壳，撑在一根细细的脖子上面。他的表情看起来总是神采奕奕，但同时又像苦行僧一般。”在我看来这个描写大部分都是准确的，只是他遗漏了这样一个事实：奥本海默有一幅像一个大量时间在户外度过的人那样满布晒纹的相貌，而亊实也是如此。