Magistrates of Brussels

Its composition is known from a grisaille sketch in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which Van Dyck prepared to show how he planned to lay out the work.

Van Dyck was paid 2,400 florins for the painting in 1628, intended for Brussels Town Hall.

The work was completed in 1634-5 and included portraits of seven magistrates in council, around a statue representing Justice.

At least four sketches of magistrates' heads for the same work are known to exist, each with a distinctive pink background.

A third was in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum from 1952 to 2010, and later sold to a private collector.