‘I’ve been riveted by Rembrandt since I was a teenager and began collecting books on his work,’ says Melvyn Bragg. ‘On my desk I have a postcard reproduction of his greatest painting (the one in Kenwood!) and it’s very good to know that if ever I want to see the original I just have to walk across the Heath.’

Now Melvyn Bragg, ambassador for the Friends of Kenwood, is introducing friend and fellow Rembrandt enthusiast Simon Schama for a talk on their favourite artist.

Simon Schama was first drawn to Rembrandt as a young boy, ‘even then I registered the transfer of the artist’s intense observation of himself as somehow a scrutiny of my own ’.  It is Rembrandt’s mind’s eye, together with the craft of his hand which makes him the great master of Dutch Golden Age painting.

In the year that marks the 350th anniversary of the painter’s death, we invite you to an evening of appreciation of the artist, one of whose greatest self-portraits still hangs in Kenwood House at the top of Hampstead Heath, local to both speakers.

‘Is it possible to have too much Rembrandt? Can you have too much love, wisdom, fine weather? No, you can’t.’ Simon Schama