Bearded Man, in a furred Oriental Cap and Robe: the Artist's Father?

Aside from the many portraits and studies of himself, Rembrandt frequently used acquaintances, friends and family members as models. Whilst in some instances the identity of the sitter is uncertain, this bearded man in a fur cap has often been identified as the artist's father, the Leiden miller Harmen Gerritsz. van Rijn (circa 1568-1630). The art historian, etcher and early cataloguer of Rembrandt’s prints Charles Blanc was the first to make this suggestion, and thought that it served as a companion piece to The Artist's Mother seated, in an oriental Headdress: Half Length (NH 86). However, in his early work Rembrandt repeatedly portrayed a number of older men, and we have too few clues to determine with absolute certainty which of them was his father.
The print is one of Rembrandt's first experiments in biting out a composition in various phases. Erik Hinterding in his landmark catalogue Rembrandt: Etchings from the Frits Lugt Collection (Hinterding, 2008, p.462) identifies the difficulties he encountered in fine-tuning the consecutive biting rounds, whereby successive immersions into the acid bath added new elements to the composition. The face was very lightly etched to begin with, the moustache, beard and fur cap were added later and bitten out more heavily. The way in which the image was built up through layering can be seen most clearly in the man's cloak, which is made up of heavy lines over a more lightly etched initial design.
Although without a watermark to prove it, this is undoubtedly an early impression, with all the fine details and three-dimensional effects Rembrandt had intended.