The Fourth Oriental Head

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is the last of the four heads that Rembrandt etched in 1635 after works by Jan Lievens. This version of the young man in a velvet beret stays close to that of Lievens, though small details, such as the dark locks of hair behind the subject’s profile, lend a greater sense of depth to the composition, as do the swiftly added etched lines that create shadow in the lower right corner.

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