All that was known about the picture at the time of its purchase for the National Gallery was that at the end of the eighteenth century it was in the possession of Jean Batiste Pierre Le Brun, the Parisian picture-dealer, and husband of the well-known portrait-painter, Madame Vigée Le Brun. Le Brun issued a very indifferent engraving of it by J. A. Pierron in Part XII (dated 1790) of his “Galerie des Peintres Flamands, Hollandais et Allemands.” In the index it was described as representing “MM. de Selve et d’Avaux; l’un, Ambassadeur à Venise, l’autre, dans les pays du Nord, avec les attributs des Arts qu’ils cultivaient; on voit à terre une Tête de Mort en perspective, à prendre de l’angle gauche, qui de face ressemble à un poisson.” When the publication was issued in volume form in 1792, with text, Le Brun slightly amplified this note, and added “J’ai depuis vendu ce tableau pour l’Angleterre, où il est maintenant; les figures sont de grandeur naturelle.” He gives no information as to the source from which he obtained the picture. It is stated in the National Gallery catalogue that it is probable that it came into the hands of the dealer Vandergucht, and that from him it was purchased by the second Earl of Radnor, about 1790 or 1795; but from the account books of Longford Castle it would appear that it was sold to the Earl by the dealer Buchanan, who received one thousand guineas for it, the payments being made in 1808 and 1809. During the years the picture remained in Longford Castle many guesses were made as to the identity of the personages. Le Brun’s title, which, after all, contained half the truth, was not accepted by the leading critics, largely owing, no doubt, to the fact that the title of Avaux did not exist until more than a hundred years after the picture was painted, so that, the one name being impossible, the other was included in the same category. In the end, a suggestion that the man on the left of the picture was Sir Thomas Wyat was regarded as a very possible solution. Mr. Wornum, in his book published in 1867, gave this attribution a qualified acceptance—“the subject is doubtful, but it is supposed to represent Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet and diplomatist, and some learned friend”[75]—and Dr. Woltmann followed suit, but went a step further, suggesting John Leland, the antiquary, as the second figure.[76] Both identifications, however, were shown to be inaccurate by Mr. J. Gough Nichols in a paper contributed to _Archæologia_ in 1873;[77] but he could offer no name in substitution, and so the matter stood until the purchase of the picture for the nation. Footnote 75: Wornum, p. 275. Footnote 76: Woltmann, i. 374. Footnote 77: _Archæologia_, vol. xliv. pt. ii. pp. 450-55. [Sidenote: THE IDENTITY OF THE SITTERS]