MASTERPIECES of Dutch and Flemish art are on show at Chester’s Grosvenor Museum, thanks to the Duke of Westminster and his trustees.

A pair of portraits by Rembrandt’s workshop and two paintings by David Teniers the Younger, generously lent by His Grace, are on display until November 25.

A Man with a Hawk and A Lady with a Fan, both signed by Rembrandt and dated 1643, had long been considered authentic Rembrandts.

However, some experts now believe that they were painted in Rembrandt’s workshop under his direct supervision, and that the man’s clothing may be by his pupil Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680).

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was the best known and most influential Dutch artist of the 17th century.

Born in Leiden, and trained as a painter there and in Amsterdam, he subsequently worked in his home town from about 1624.

In 1631/2 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and rapidly became the city’s leading portraitist for the next decade.

David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), who worked in Antwerp and Brussels as court painter to the Governor of the Southern Netherlands, is best known for his unidealised scenes of peasant life.

Saying Grace Before a Meal depicts a well-off farming family in a well-equipped interior, presenting an image of modest rural wealth and celebrating the virtues of the peasantry.

Interior of a Tavern shows peasants drinking and smoking.

The paintings are part of a programme of loans to the museum from the Duke of Westminster’s collection. Mostly acquired by the 1st and 2nd Earls Grosvenor in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Duke’s paintings form one of the greatest aristocratic collections in Britain today.