Grace Weaver on Dirk Bouts

A quiet, watchful painting: American painter Grace Weaver on her love for Dirk Bouts's Virgin and Child (1456)

There's a route through London I love: down the cobblestones of Soho at a clip, along Whitcomb Street, into the National Gallery, up the stairs, and into the Sainsbury Wing with its new hang. Tourists crowd around the opulent The Arnolfini Portrait in the first room, while the wing's left half stays comparatively deserted. There, a handful of pale, peculiar Madonnas from the north keep watch: gentle figures like…