Bust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur Cap

Bust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur Cap

Jan Lievens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This introspective portrait of an old man in exotic costume is an early work by Lievens from a series of lightly etched imaginary heads of about 1630-32. The print was made at a time when Lievens worked in close collaboration with Rembrandt in Leiden and when the two young artists mutually influenced each other's work. Lievens was inspired by Rembrandt's contemporary etched portraits of men in oriental dress when he created this bust of an aged man wearing an unusual fur cap bound by a strip of cloth. Rembrandt in turn etched copies of this print and two others from the series in 1635.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur CapBust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur CapBust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur CapBust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur CapBust of an Old Man Wearing a Fur Cap

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.