It is not known for certain whether Jan Steen (1626?-1679) was a pupil
of Nicholaes Knupfer, a native of Leipzig who resided for a time at
Leyden, but he certainly worked under Adriaen van Ostade at Haarlem,
and later became a pupil of Jan van Goyen, whose daughter Margaretha
he married as his first wife. Steen certainly leased a brewery in
Delft for six years, and he is frequently mentioned in the archives of
that town about 1656; he subsequently kept a tavern in the Langebrug
in Leyden in 1672. His art is vivacious if not boisterous, and the
strength and versatility he displayed in the nine hundred pictures with
which he is justly credited give him a high place among the artists of
Holland in the seventeenth century. The frequency with which he painted
the _Interior of a Tavern_ (No. 2578) has suggested that he carried
on the tradition of the Flemish-Dutch roysterer Adriaen Brouwer; but
such scenes, magnificently as they are handled, are apt to become
boring in time. This large canvas is dated 1674, and the coat of arms
of Charles V. is fastened on to the balcony in which are spectators.
The _Merry Company at Table_ (No. 2579) is somewhat sketchy in parts,
but the lighting is well regulated, and the canvas is signed in full
on the back of a blue-covered chair to the right. That the _Bad
Company_ (No. 2580, Plate XXXIV.) is admirably painted will be conceded
by all, but refinement is not its distinguishing feature. A young
man dressed in a red jacket is sleeping with his head on the lap of
a girl, while another girl is relieving him of his watch. The scene
is laid in a tavern, on the floor of which are painted with wonderful
precision a number of tiny objects. It was not Steen’s habit to paint
representations of cultured society such as Terborch delighted in.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXXIV.—JAN STEEN
(1626?-1679)