Seated Man

A bearded old man squats on the ground, his body enveloped in a large cape. Tufts of hair stick out from under a cap, which is pulled low over his forehead, while a broad-brimmed hat lies beside him on the ground. The man's right foot ends abruptly in a bandaged stump resting in front of him; his other foot is tucked behind. Roelandt Savery emphasized the cloak's volume and shape using a system of cross-hatching with short, hooked strokes of the pen. This drawing comes from a series of studies similar in subject and style. On many of the sheets, the artist inscribed the words *naer het leven*, which suggests that each scene was drawn from life rather than from the artist's imagination. At a time when most drawings were prepared in the studio, this fact was unusual enough to be worth noting. The notations surrounding the figure suggest possible colors, perhaps for use in a painting.