Bust of an Old Man
1635–44
Medium
Etching on paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 16 × 14.3 cm (6 5/16 × 5 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109036
Art Historical Context
Jan Lievens, a artist active during the Golden Age, created this intimate etching between 1635 and 1644. Working alongside contemporaries like Rembrandt in Leiden and later in Antwerp and Amsterdam, Lievens was celebrated for his sensitive portrayals of character and expression. Here, he captures the weathered features of an elderly man in a tightly cropped bust format, inviting viewers to contemplate themes of age, wisdom, and human transience. Etching, a technique that allowed artists to freely on a prepared metal plate before printing, was especially valued in the seventeenth century for i...
About the Artist
Jan Lievens · 1607–1674
Jan Lievens (1607–1674) was born in Leiden and showed exceptional artistic promise from an early age, beginning his training with the local painter Joris van Schooten before traveling to Amsterdam around 1617 to study for two years under Pieter Lastman—the same teacher who would later instruct Rembrandt van Rijn. Lievens and Rembrandt, near-contemporaries born in the same city, subsequently shared...