THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS QUALITY (JUST BEAUTY):

It had always niggled at her that the panel might not be a fake. "It is what Rembrandt does. He does these tiny head studies of old men with forlorn, melancholic, pensive looks. It is very typical of what Rembrandt does in Leiden around 1630."

The panel was analysed by Peter Klein, one of the world's leading dendrochronologists, and it was established that the wood panel came from the same tree used for Rembrandt's Andromeda Chained to the Rocks, which is in the Mauritshuis in the Hague and Jan Lievens' Portrait of Rembrandt's Mother, in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, Germany. Both were painted around 1630 when the artists, friends from childhood, were working in Leiden in the Netherlands.

Klein said the wood panel came from an oak tree felled in the Baltic region between 1618-28. "Allowing a minimum of two years for the seasoning of the wood, we can firmly date the portrait to 1620-30," he said.

Van Camp said all the research pointed to the panel being at least from the workshop of Rembrandt. More investigations will follow to determine whether there is evidence of Rembrandt's own hand in the work.

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