Sleeping Man
1620–74
Medium
Etching; second state of three
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 7/16 in. × 3 in. (11.2 × 7.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.1391
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jan Lievens (1607–1674), a Dutch Golden Age artist and close contemporary of Rembrandt, created *Sleeping Man* during his career spanning 1620–74. This intimate etching captures a reposeful male figure in a moment of unguarded vulnerability, a motif that resonated in 17th-century Dutch art's emphasis on everyday humanity and naturalism. Lievens, trained in Leiden alongside Rembrandt, was renowned for his expressive portraits history scenes, often blending dramatic lighting with keen observation. Rendered as a second state of in etching—a meticulous intaglio technique where acid bites into a m...
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...