This delightful little genre scene is a wonderful example of Rembrandt’s cheeky sense of humour. This seemingly innocent pastoral scene of a herdsman briefly resting his cattle and himself is undermined by a young amorous couple taking advantage of the older man’s sleepiness to engage in activities which he would certainly not approve of. This work belongs to the small group of erotic prints, which includes the The Flute Player (New Hollstein 211) and the even more explicit and hence extremely rare so-called French Bed and the Monk in the Cornfield (New Hollstein 230 & 231). Like these, The Sleeping Herdsman was probably not intended for wider publication but only distributed to a small circle of friends and collectors. The present sheet once belonged to the great Liverpool collector Daniel Daulby, author of a catalogue of Rembrandt's etchings in 1796.