Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
'A Beggar Seated on a Bank'
1630
Etching (Bartsch 174, only state)
Museum no. CAI 673 
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides 

As a collector, Ionides seems to have shown a special liking for scenes depicting labourers, the poor and beggars. This was a long-standing genre in Netherlandish art, but Rembrandt reaches beyond the humorous and grotesque to reveal a new psychological insight and sense of humanity.