A Group of Standing Monks and other Figures
1630s–40s
Medium
Pen and brown ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 15/16 × 9 15/16 in. (27.8 × 25.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Frits and Rita Markus and Harry G. Sperling Funds, 2018
Accession Number
2018.512
Art Historical Context
In the 1630s–40s, during the Dutch Golden Age, Jan Lie crafted this lively pen and brown ink drawing, *A Group of Standing Mon and other Figures*. Measuring nearly 11 by 10 inches, it depicts a cluster of robed monks alongside secular figures, their postures suggesting casual conversation or contemplation. Lievens, a close contemporary and sometime collaborator of Rembrandt in Leiden, was renowned for his bold draftsmanship, using fluid lines to convey volume, movement, and expressive gestures typical of Baroque naturalism. Pen and brown ink was a favored medium among Dutch artists for its im...
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...