Although the Dutch master’s A Girl at a Window, which captivates visitors to the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London, was nominated by members of the public, the organisers excluded it from their final shortlist.

One of the poll’s three panellists, Martin Gayford, the art critic, revealed on the Today programme: “We on the panel, in our incredibly subjective way, all felt it wasn’t one of his best pictures.” The comment was dismissed as “ridiculous” by the director of the Dulwich gallery, Ian Dejardin, who is among many who regard it as “an absolute masterpiece”.

Recalling a scholar who once described it as “the first time that Rembrandt had painted not a person, but individuality itself”, he said: “It’s not just character-head. It goes beyond that. He wasn’t trying to get a special light effect or a personalty type. She doesn’t represent a ‘type’. She represents ‘everyone’.”

The painting — a jewel of one of the world’s most important collections of European Old Master Paintings — has just undergone a six-month conservation programme. That has brought out the extraordinary range of colours — yellow, blue, green, orange, red — used in the girl’s face.

Rembrandt was, at least, in good company among the omitted artists. Monet, Raphael and Canaletto were also overlooked. The shortlist spans more than five centuries of European art, from 1434 to 1971.

The public voted for their favourite painting from any currently hanging in a British gallery or museum, regardless of the nationality of the artist or the period in which they worked. The National Gallery was singled out for the largest number of chosen paintings: Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ, John Constable’s The Hay Wain, J. M. W. Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, and Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

There was also William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress at the Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, and the Revd Dr Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch , whose attribution to Sir Henry Raeburn has been disputed, at the National Galleries of Scotland, The only contemporary artist was David Hockney, for Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy in Tate Britain.

An overall winner will be chosen on September 5. The public can vote for their favourite via www.bbc.co.uk/today. The search for the Greatest Painting in Britain follows the BBC’s Great Britons poll — won by Sir Winston Churchill — and the Big Read, which was topped by Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The other panellists who oversaw the selection were Jonathan Yeo, the artist, and Deborah Bull, Creative Director, ROH2 at the Royal Opera House.

MASTER WORKS

The Arnolfini Portrait Jan van Eyck (National Gallery, London), 1434

The Baptism of Christ Piero della Francesca (National Gallery, London), c1450

A Rake’s Progress William Hogarth (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), 1735

Revd Dr Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch Sir Henry Raeburn (National Galleries of Scotland), c1795

The Hay Wain John Constable (National Gallery, London), 1821

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up, J. M. W. Turner (National Gallery, London), 1838

The Last of England Ford Madox Brown (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery / The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), 1855

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Edouard Manet (Courtauld Institute Gallery, London), 1882

Sunflowers Vincent van Gogh (National Gallery, London), 1888

Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy David Hockney (Tate Britain), 1970

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