The painting was given to the trust in 2010 by the estate of Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, whose property-developer husband was a major collector of Dutch and Flemish art. It hangs in Buckland Abbey in southwest England, the former home of 16th-century seafarer Francis Drake.

The portrait of the artist wearing a cap with a large white feather was long thought to have been done by one of Rembrandt's pupils and was credited as in the "style of" the 17th-century Dutch master.

But the National Trust said an investigation led by Ernst van de Wetering, the world's leading Rembrandt expert, had determined it was by Rembrandt himself.