Both these works have been recently been re-attributed to the master by the RRP. In 1991 at the time of the Exhibitions Rembrandt and his Workshop both had been demoted. I opposed the deattribution of both in a travelling exhibition that I mounted at Leyden and later in Trafalgar Square (St. Martin's in the Fields). I opposed the demotion of the self-portrait on the grounds that it was observed (in a mirror) at an angle of approx 40 degrees to the vertical. This means that an outside observer would have had to be more or less lying at Rembrandt's feet in order to see him from that angle; most inconvenient!

The Good Samaritan's demotion I opposed because it seemed absurd to me to demote such a beauty on the grounds that Rembrandt did not usually use colour when preparing a design for an etching.

I congratulate the RRP for catching up with me on these two points - an acknowledgement would not have been out of place.