Man Crying Out, Three-Quarters Left: Bust

Man Crying Out, Three-Quarters Left: Bust is an expressive print by Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn), dating from the early period of his career, approximately 1624-1634. This piece is rendered using the etching technique, a medium in which Rembrandt achieved unparalleled mastery during the Dutch Golden Age. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds this specific impression, which is documented as the seventh and final state according to the New Hollstein catalogue. This prolonged evolution of the plate demonstrates Rembrandt's habit of revisiting and reworking his compositions over time, deepening the burr and refining the darkness of the lines to enhance the dramatic effect of the single light source.

The work focuses intimately on the subject, presenting a portrait bust of a man captured mid-emotion. Rather than a traditional commissioned portrait, this etching aligns with the type of expressive character studies, or tronies, that Rembrandt frequently undertook in his Leiden years. These studies allowed the artist to experiment with extreme psychological states and varied physiognomies. The intensity of the subject’s open mouth and deeply furrowed brow maximizes the viewer's attention on raw, immediate feeling. Rembrandt used such focused studies of men and facial contortions to build his visual vocabulary for later, more complex narrative compositions. The survival of multiple states of this work offers valuable insight into the artist’s process and his evolving command of light and shadow in his prints. This enduring piece remains a significant object for scholarly study, and high resolution images are often made available through public domain initiatives facilitated by major institutions like the Met.