From the inventory made of Rembrandt's belongings after his bankruptcy in 1656, we know that he had a large collection of prints and drawings. It contained all the great artists, both contemporaries and predecessors. In it, the French etcher Jacques Callot (1592-1635) is not mentioned by name, with the exception of a book illustrated with his prints. But that Rembrandt was interested in his work, as an etcher himself, is evident from his own prints. The many beggars that Rembrandt brought into print, already in his Leiden time, testifies of a great interest in the French artist. Among the nearly 1,400 etchings by Callot is a series of 25 prints of beggars entitled ‘Les Gueux’. The prints were published in the years 1622-1623, although preparations had probably started earlier, during Callot's stay in Italy, where he had lived and worked for the previous decade. The prints were therefore of a fairly recent date, when Rembrandt started his own etchings of beggars.
Most of Rembrandt’s beggars are of small size, but a few are significantly larger and closer to Callot's work than the rest. This applies, for example, to this print of a man dressed in rags, with tattered shoes and a top hat. The man is depicted with loosely placed, parallel lines, which are evenly corroded. He is isolated from his environment; only some shadows are visible on the left. This way of rendering is very similar to a number of chalk drawings that Rembrandt made of beggars and craftsmen in the same years, without having served as direct studies for etchings.
The beggar, who now appears to be on the right side of the sheet, originally stood in the center. At some point in time the right side of the print was slightly cropped. Regrettable as this may be, the action has not affected the image and bears witness to the way collectors sometimes dealt with prints in the past.
Etching, 150 x 90 mm, PK-P-103.213.