'Exceedingly rare' late Rembrandt set to fetch £13m

One of the most important works by the 17th-century Old Master Rembrandt van Rijn to come on to the market is expected to make up to $25m (£12.6m) at auction.

The rare, late, large-scale work, Saint James the Greater, was formerly owned by Stephen Carlton Clark, grandson of the founder of the Singer sewing machine company, but is now being sold for charity. It went on display in London yesterday prior to sale in New York next month.

George Wachter, vice-chairman of Sotheby's Old Master paintings department worldwide, said: "This is one of the most important works by Rembrandt that Sotheby's has ever handled. Over the past 20 years, the vast majority of pictures by the artist that have appeared on the market have dated to the 1630s and 1640s. It is exceedingly rare to have one that dates to the 1660s. Works of this period, the last decade of Rembrandt's life and a time of personal turmoil, are extremely intense, soulful and introspective."

Rembrandt, who died in 1669 aged 63, was rarely as starkly pious as in this painting of the apostle at prayer.

The work can be traced back to the 18th century and was once owned by Sir John Charles Robinson, the first curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But it has been in America since the turn of the last century. In 1913, John North Willys of Toledo, Ohio, a car magnate, bought it. It then entered the collection of the theatre producer "Broadway" Billy Rose, before being purchased by Mr Clark in 1955.

There are hardly any late works in private hands. But the family have now gifted it to the Shippy Foundation in the aid of Social Justice, Human Service and Education which is selling it.

A second painting by the artist, Portrait of a Young Woman with a Black Cap which was recently reattributed to Rembrandt 20 years after experts ruled it was not his, is also on offer estimated at up to $4m. The 1632 portrait shows similarities to Rembrandt self-portraits leading to speculation she could be his sister - or a rendering of himself in female form.

When the Rembrandt Research Project began examining all the artist's works 20 years ago, the painting was dismissed as "an old imitation, probably done outside of Rembrandt's circle". But with the accumulation of knowledge and after the painting was cleaned, experts have now restored it to the canon. Both Rembrandts will be sold on 25 January.

Highlights of a separate sale of Old Masters in London next week include a Dutch cityscape, View of the Sint Antoniespoort, by Jan van der Heyden arguably the most important of his works to be sold. The painting, which was once owned by the Rothschilds, is expected to make £4m to 6m, the highest estimate for any Old Master to come to market this year. George Gordon, from Sotheby's, said it was as pristine as when it was painted 300 years ago.