My own part in this story was my two-week stay a few years ago in historic Bruges taking part in a portraiture group with the awesome Robert Liberace. The last time I had been in Bruges, as a much younger woman, I would sit with the lacemakers each afternoon studiously moving the pins and making the bobbins do their dance. This time, there was a heat wave and a train strike… and like everyone else I took many photographs. The family tableau in this painting did involve some juggling of perspective… but it almost happened. Honest.