Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary

This was the first great picture Van Dyck painted after Charles I made him court painter in 1632, and at court it was simply called the Greate Peece. It shows the king and his French queen, Henrietta Maria, seated together, with the baby Princess Mary on her mother's lap and a small boy standing at his father's knee. That boy would grow up to be Charles II. It hung in a place of honour at Whitehall, where the king could see his family and his crown, mace and sword all set out on the table beside them. Within 20 years the picture of this settled royal household had come apart. Charles was executed in 1649 and the collection sold off, and the portrait only came back after his son was restored to the throne in 1660.