2092); _Henri IV. leaves for the War with Germany and entrusts the Government to the Queen_ (No. 2093, Plate XXI.); _The Coronation of the Queen_ (No. 2094); _Apotheosis of Henri IV. and the Queen’s Regency_ (No. 2095); _The Queen’s Journey to Ponts-de-Cé_ (No. 2097); _Exchange of the Two Princesses, Nov. 9, 1615_ (No. 2098); _The Prosperous Regency_ (No. 2099); _The Majority of Louis XIII._ (No. 2100); _The Queen’s Nocturnal Flight from Blois_ (No. 2101); _The Reconciliation of the Queen with her Son_ (No. 2102); _The Conclusion of Peace_ (No. 2103); and _Marie’s Interview with her Son_ (No. 2104). But _The Birth of Marie de Médicis, at Florence, on April 26, 1575_ (No. 2086); _The Education of Marie by Minerva, Mercury, Apollo, and the Graces_ (No. 2087); and _The Gods in Olympus protecting the Queen’s Government_ (No. 2096), which belong to the same series, have been placed in another room. Of the first and the last paintings the Louvre owns the original sketch on one panel, by Rubens, for _The Triumph of Truth_ and _The Fates spinning the Destiny of Marie_ (No. 2110), the other preliminary sketches being at the Hermitage and the Munich Gallery. It is interesting to note that all these sketches are designed in a very light key, almost in grisaille, with touches of rose and other tender colour notes, so that apparently Rubens’s assistants were allowed great liberty in the matter of colour. MÉDICIS PORTRAITS Several other pictures by Rubens at the Louvre—all of them portraits—are more or less directly connected with the Médicis series, and were painted between 1621 and 1625. These are the _Portrait of Anne of Austria_ (No. 2112), which was formerly known as _Elizabeth of Bourbon_; the _Portrait of Francesco de’ Medici_ (No. 2106), Grand Duke of Tuscany, and father of Marie de Médicis, which was painted for the Luxembourg Gallery; the _Portrait of Johanna of Austria_ (No. 2107), daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand, and wife of Francesco de’ Medici; the _Portraits of Marie de Médicis_ (Nos. 2108 and 2109) (the former in the character of Bellona, and both studio works with the final touches added by the master); and the _Portrait of Baron Henri de Vicq_ (No. 2111), who, as Flemish Ambassador to the French Court, was instrumental in procuring Rubens the important commission for the Luxembourg pictures. This admirable portrait was bought at the King of Holland’s sale in 1850 for £637. To the same period belongs the beautiful _Portrait of Susanne Fourment_ (Rubens’s handsome, large-eyed sister-in-law, whose features are best known from the _Chapeau de Paille_ at the National Gallery), which is still officially catalogued as _Portrait of a Lady of the Boonen Family_ (No. 2114); and the important composition _Lot’s Flight from Sodom_ (No. 2075), which bears the rare full signature and date PE.-PA.-RUBENS FE, Aᵒ 1625,