Jan Lutma

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here, Rembrandt depicts Jan Lutma, a master silversmith in Amsterdam, with some of his creations: an object, possibly a candlestick, in his hand and a drinking bowl on the table. Lutma, about seventy-two years old in this portrait, experienced problems with his eyesight as he grew older, which may account for his absent look. Rembrandt printed this sensitive portrait on Japan paper, which imparts a warm tone to the background and heightens the shadows of the dimly lit room. To the upper left of the chair is the circular mark of the eighteenth-century British collector Sir Edward Astley, who occasionally placed his stamp in prominent places within images. His collection was known for its superb Rembrandt etchings.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art