Old Master goes on tour after 230 years

A Dutch masterpiece that has never left the Hermitage Palace in Russia since it was bought by Catherine the Great 230 years ago goes on display in Britain tomorrow.

Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London had no idea that it was scooping galleries from around the world by showing River View by Adam Pynacker – described as "the pearl of the Hermitage collection" – until the tiny work arrived last week.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, the gallery's director, said: "You just assume that much grander institutions than us will have asked for this incredibly beautiful, important painting at some stage, and at some stage it will have been lent to them."

Dr Irina Sokolova, curator of 17th-century Dutch painting at the Hermitage, said the work was usually viewed in Russia through a specially air-conditioned box because of its fragility. "But the conditions at Dulwich are very good and so we decided to lend it for this important exhibition."

It will be a star of a show on 17th-century Dutch landscape painting inspired by Italy, which runs to 26 August.

Catherine the Great acquired the work in Paris in 1772 as part of the extraordinary collection of Pierre Crozat, a celebrated connoisseur.