![Detail from Vermeer's Music Lesson](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/lead_image_half_height/Masters%20half.jpg)
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (LEIDEN 1606-AMSTERDAM 1669)
An old Woman called 'The Artist's Mother'
RCIN 405000
Sir Robert Kerr was sent to Amsterdam in 1629 on a diplomatic mission to the exiled King and Queen of Bohemia. He sent this painting as a gift to Charles I, making it the first painting by Rembrandt to leave Holland and start (slowly at first) to establish his international reputation.
Presented to Charles I by Sir Robert Kerr (later 1st Earl of Ancram)