Slow down to view Rembrandt painting National Trust urges

A Rembrandt painting is beginning a national tour, with viewers urged to meditate on the work to boost their mental health.

The self-portrait, which was verified as genuine in 2014, will visit National Trust properties in Dorset, Cheshire and Warwickshire over the next year.

The trust said it would provide seating and “audio guides featuring meditative prompts” to encourage “slow looking”.

It said it wanted to increase the average eight-second viewing time for an artwork, as a way of reducing stress and developing emotional resilience.

National Trust art curator Amy Orrock said: “Slow looking is… a way of being present, of noticing the details and the emotions they generate that might otherwise pass us by.

“This self-portrait… invites you to look closer, to wonder what Rembrandt was contemplating and maybe to reflect on your own state of mind.”

The work, which was gifted to the trust in 2010, shows the artist wearing a black velvet cap with two ostrich feathers, a decorative metal band worn round the neck and a short, decorated velvet cape.

It was signed and dated 1635, but its authenticity was long questioned by some art historians who considered parts of the work to be inferior.

However, the piece was confirmed as genuine by the Hamilton Kerr Institute in 2014 and was valued at £30m.

John Chu, a Senior National Curator at the trust, said the artist appeared both “swaggering” and “tentative” in the picture, with a “mysterious” shadow across his face.

The work will begin its tour at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne and will visit Dunham Massey and Upton House in 2026 before returning to its home at Buckland Abbey in Devon.