If given an opportunity to design a traveling art exhibition, I would love to focus on the genre paintings of Jan Steen, Dutch Golden Age artist.

Steen was gregarious and jovial. Beyond his ability as a painter, he was a brewer and an innkeeper. Many a time he was host to a number of gatherings like those he painted. And like all good artists, Steen painted what he knew.

For nearly three decades, (1650's -1670's) Jan Steen painted complex, engaging, and humorous genre paintings, full of liveliness and fun. His visual stories serve as a window into what the Dutch people were like in the 17th century.

Steen paintings often show activities of large groups of Dutch people. They provide a rich visual record of Dutch people as they were 350 years ago, their clothing styles, foods, and architecture. But what is really interesting in his paintings is that Steen draws us into the scene, almost to the point where we can hear, touch, taste, sing and laugh.

His compositions were not simple. His paintings at times would include up to 40 figures, each distinct, each telling a different part of the story. These paintings were more like theater productions or movie scenes. Thought has been given to each figure's costume and posture. Each is carefully lighted and attention was given to how they interacted with other characters within the scene.

From chaotic children in a classroom to wine drinking dinner parties or moments of flirtatious naughtiness, Steen's paintings grab our interest. They are fun to study, and leave us feeling we wish were there, that we had been part of the party.

The genre paintings done in 17th century Holland influenced future artists. In the 19th and 20th century, the work of Winslow Homer, N.C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker Norman Rockwell all benefited from the visual storytelling of the Dutch masters.

Above is Jan Steen's Self Portrait where he pictures himself in a serious manner. But, according to the Rijksmuseum's website, "Steen portrays himself here as utterly self-assured. Most of the time though, he includes himself ... usually in a comic role."

Steen was most comfortable painting common people, most often in celebration, with dancing, music-making, with layers of sexual or moralizing innuendo. I think he found still life and landscape boring. He wanted paintings throbbing with life, with fun and humor. He inherited a brewery from his father, fathered six children with Margriet, the daughter of his teacher, landscape painter Jan van Goyen. Margriet died in 1669 and he married Maria van Egmont in 1674 with whom he had another child. Jan Steen died young, in Leiden in 1679 at the young age of 52 or 53.

Among the Dutch today, there is a widespread verbal expression to describe a chaotic household, "Een huishouden van Jan Steen," translated "a Jan Steen household." A sign over the fireplace is a Dutch proverb, "As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young."

Over 350 years ago, Jan Steen was a popular and successful painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Today, his painting The Merry Family is a national treasure of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It shows us a riotous family gathering with parents, children, and the family dog all singing, playing instruments, drinking and smoking, yes, even the kids. In this video, Pieter Roelofs of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum discusses the significance of The Merry Family.

Peasants before an Inn is a small painting, just over 24 inches wide, yet Jan Steen has created 25 figures in it, not to mention three dogs and a horse. It includes three separate conversations going on, a couple dancing, a piper playing, a man tending to his horse, a woman comforting a child, a maid cleaning the door to a room and a man waiting at a table for service. A lot going on with fading sun and long shadows.

Jan Steen, Self Portrait of a Lute Player, 1650-75
oil on canvas, 22 x 17 1/2
Sammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Jan Steen's Self Portrait of a Lute Player shows the influence of Frans Hals (1582-1666) who was 44 years older than Steen (1626-1679). I've not run across any record that they knew each other, but Steen was aware of Frans Hals' style and probably studied his paintings. In this self portrait, Steen pictures himself with a self satisfied expression, strumming away while wearing old style Spanish clothing, maybe part of a theatrical production as would have been worn in Holland before the Dutch independence from the Spanish.

Woman at her Toilet ... The Rijksmuseum's website says "This is an intimate moment – a girl undressing before going to bed. She is just pulling off a stocking. The indentation left by her garter is visible just below her knee. Her raised skirt allows the viewer a peak up along her bare legs. The image’s explicit eroticism did not always find favour; until a hundred years ago, an underskirt was painted over her thighs."

In Interior with Jan Steen and the Family of Gerrit Schouten, we see a self portrait of Jan Steen dressed as a gentleman standing in front of the fireplace, gesturing towards a seated man who has recently been identified as Gerrit Schouten, a wealthy brewer from the Dutch town of Haarlem. In this scene, Schouten is accompanied by his son and daughters. Schouten owned a brewery called The Elephant. Over the fireplace is a painting of elephants, probably of Hannibal's army. Greek style carved figures are above the wardrobe and carved cherubs serve as a pedestal for the harpsichord.

In the lower left, note the African native making off with a bottle of Elephant beer. From our 21st century perspective, this comical use of a native African figure is shameful. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch were deeply involved in the slave trade, especially the middle passage of slaves to the Caribbean and to Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). But the horrors of the slade trade had not yet reached the awareness of Gerrit Schouten and his family.

It may be appropriate to point out how long ago the Dutch Golden Era was. Steen's active painting period was from the 1650's through the 1670's. When Steen painted Interior with Jan Steen and the Family of Gerrit Schouten in 1660, slavery in America's Southern colonies was growing exponentially. George Washington would not be born until 1732, 72 years in the future. Any meaningful opposition to the slave trade had yet to appear anywhere. This painting was painted 116 years before the Declaration of Independence and over two centuries before the Civil War.

The Card Players in an Interior is much more than a congenial card game to pass the afternoon away. The setting is an inn with 8 figures and a sleeping dog. By the fireplace, a maid is serving wine or a tasty treat to two gentlemen. The man seated at the card table wearing a feathered hat is showing his hand to a waiter pouring wine. The woman at the card table is showing her cheating card to us while concealing it from her opponent's view. At the woman's feet, an ace of spades appears to be face up on the floor. Perhaps they are playing for money or sexual favor. On the right down a hall through an open door are two figures seated at a table next to an open window. Notice the richness of the oriental carpet on the table. Carpets were commonly used as table coverings, room dividers and wall hangings in the 17th century.

As old men sing is a repeated theme in Jan Steen's work, people drinking, singing, with children present and a carpet serving as a table cloth. You can see similarities with The Merry Family (near the beginning of this article).

Woman Playing the Lute shows a scene in a brothel. Clues are the woman's breasts painted in bright tones, and the painting of nudes on the wall behind her provides another clue. The stairway on the left side of the painting leads to rooms upstairs. The woman pouring wine for the gentleman client is the madame of the house, about to arrange the business at hand as the woman playing the lute provides mood music.

Twelfth Night Feast takes place on the 12th day of Christmas, marking the 12th day after Jesus' birth. In the Christmas narrative, this is the day Christians commemorate the arrival of the three wise men from the east. In the 17th century, Twelfth Night was widely celebrated in Europe. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was first performed in London 60 years earlier at a Twelfth Night celebration in 1602.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, says this on their website, "Twelfth Night was a time for celebration and raucous feasting, and Steen takes us to a wealthy family’s party. Look for the details: the egg shells on the floor where children play with candles, symbols of the Kings; on the table, the boy who offers the little “king,” wearing a paper crown, a bite of his waffle. In the doorway at the upper left corner of the painting, a group of carolers appear, bearing a star-shaped lantern."

Certainly a popular gathering place for the Dutch and a place probably frequented or maybe owned and run by Jan Steen himself, The Beer Garden celebrates communal joy. The waitress, dressed in red trimmed in white is the star of this painting, refilling the cups of patrons. A fine cloak is draped over the end of the outdoor table and a dog sits below waiting for a dropped morsel of pub grub. Other patrons in Dutch dress fill out the scene underneath a canopy of hops on the trellis above.

Jan Steen created many such wedding pictures. In this painting, I've counted the figures three times. My best guess is A Peasant's Wedding has 39 figures and a dog. It's a lively scene and everyone seems to be enjoying it.

Beginning at the right, we see a waitress filling a pitcher from a keg on wheels. The table behind her has a group participating in a drinking game, with a woman holding the bottom of a drinking cup with her chin while a gentleman drinks the beer while leaning the cup in his direction. This couple is being cheered on by all at the table. In the center, a fiddler and a cellist make music. In the foreground, a mother, two children and a dog seem to be amused by a gentleman who has fallen off his chair. In the background, there is an older gentleman dancing with two women and yet another table behind them. To the left in an ante room, a gentleman in a red cloak appears to be in discussion with a woman with a white scarf. Overhead, there is a large carpet rolled up to the ceiling. When it is let down, it would have served as a room divider.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art's website says of Rhetoricians at a Window, "These mirthful men are members of a chamber of rhetoric, a type of dramatic and literary society popular throughout the Dutch Republic. These groups performed plays, tableau vivants, and poetry readings. At left, the group’s orator reads a paper titled Lof Liet (Song of Praise), while the poet who composed the verse looks on over his shoulder.

"Opposite, a critic listens pensively while a jester provokes laughter from onlookers. Many artists were members of such societies. While it is not known if Steen himself belonged, he frequently embraced elements of stage performance, theatricality, and poetry in his art."

Skittle Players outside an inn shows an inn called The White Swan. The National Gallery's website says, "The energetic pose of the man bowling suggests that he’s serious about his game and that, given a moment or two, the skittles will be scattered everywhere. His companions keep a close watch, while a little boy stands straight and gazes intently, a crutch under his arm. Steen has captured their moods and characters with the minimum of facial detail, their poses and gestures enough to tell us about them." As an inn keeper himself, Steen often observed scenes such as this.

In The Lovesick Woman, Jan Steen shows us a distressed woman who has lost her love. The red item on the floor is a receptacle with a burning coal, placed in this painting to symbolize the burning love the girl still holds for her lover. The open basket on the floor symbolizes that she is pregnant, adding to her distress. The note on the table is a letter of rejection. Through the door, a maid is meeting the postman. Maybe a new letter will remedy the situation, but don't count on it.

Jan Steen's Beware of Luxury shows a self indulgent family group who has been drinking and are up to no good. Today, the Dutch have a saying which roughly translates "In good times beware the consequences." Featured in the center of a triangular grouping of figures is a loose-living young woman flirtatiously peering straight at the viewer. In this scene, the wife has fallen asleep next to a window and table with the family dog on top gnawing on food. As the fiddler plays, a child appears to be raiding an unlocked jewelry cabinet. The toddler in the high chair plays with a string of pearls. Meanwhile, the husband is flirting with the young woman, his leg crossed over hers while another woman holding a book admonishes him. The floor is strewn with items, and a pet pig is making the most of the moment. The cloaked Quaker wearing a top hat in the back appears to be reading from a Bible as a duck stands on his back. The duck is a visual pun which Steen adds to mock the Quakers as "quackers."

The Dancing Couple shows us a boisterous party underneath a vine covered arbor. A flute player and fiddler fill the scene with sound as people eat, drink, flirt, smoke as children play with their toys. The National Gallery of Art's website says, "Steen, one of the most versatile and prolific Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, was apparently less adept in his other profession as a brewer and innkeeper because, legend has it, he drank too much of his own inventory and spent more money than he earned. The relative chaos and merry mood of his paintings gave rise to the Dutch saying "to run a household like Jan Steen," meaning to have a disorderly house."

Here in the center of The Dissolute Household, Jan Steen paints himself, holding court as it were, the king amid the chaos. Steen entwines his fingers with those of the maid's right hand as she pours more wine for the wife's cup with her left hand. Steen's wife's right foot rests on an open book on the floor next to a broken glass, a discarded lute resting on what appears to be a backgammon board while the household cat paws at a discarded tray. Backgammon was popular in England in the 17th century, and the Dutch here seem to have adopted it.

Adolf Croeser with daughter Catharina Croeser in Delft shows Adolf Croeser, the Burgomaster of Delft. As the Burgomaster sits on his front stoop with his daughter standing below an open window with flowers on the window sill. A beggar woman and her son approach, asking for assistance. To the right, a bridge crosses the Oude Delft River, bearing the city's coat of arms. In the background rising toward the heavens is the steeple of the Oude Kerk. It is thought the painting is meant to point out the disparity of wealth, and that Steen is saying the burden of the wealthy is to help those less fortunate.

In The Drawing Lesson, Jan Steen shows us the inside of an artist's studio. By the light of a window, he offers instruction to a well dressed young woman as a boy (maybe her son) looks on. The studio is filled with artist materials, some plaster casts of faces and a foot, the sculpture of a Greek male nude, musical instruments and other items which could be used for still life paintings. In the background, we see an easel with a painting on it.

The Feast of St. Nicholas shows a chaotic scene in a Dutch family home during the Feast of St. Nicholas, celebrated on December 5. The young girl holds a doll she found in her shoe. Behind her, her brother appears to be crying, signifying that his shoe was empty. But behind him is the boy's grandmother, who will comfort him by giving him a gift. On the table to the left of the mother is a basket spilling out onto the table traditional sweetmeats like honey cake, gingerbread, waffles, nuts and apples, a miniature sill life within this painting.

The Bowling Game shows bowling as a common outdoor activity among the Dutch. The roots of bowling run deep. Ancient Egyptians and all the way into the Roman era, people were setting up pins and knocking them over with a ball. In the 16th century, England's Henry VIII acquired Whitehall Palace in central London and had it rebuilt, including outdoor bowling lanes. Not too many years afterward in Germany, Martin Luther built lanes next to his home for his children, sometimes enjoying a roll for himself. Among the Dutch of the Golden Age, it was a popular mild competition usually enjoyed outdoors near an open tap. In this scene, I count at least 28 figures involved in a variety of activities with bowlers in the foreground.

In The way you Hear it is the way you Sing it, we have Jan Steen painting a boisterous picture of naughty behavior, a celebration filled with bad judgment. These are not doctrinaire pius folk, but people who love life in the moment. Steen seems to be acknowledging a truth, that bad behavior on the part of the old leads to bad behavior among the young. But he, like the subjects in his painting (including himself), doesn't seem to care. The woman at the left is having her wine glass filled with a high pour at the apex of the scene, while the father (a self portrait of Jan Steen himself) is teaching a youngster how to smoke a pipe. A young person with bagpipes provides some musical background. And Steen's seemingly ever present family dog is part of the scene.

The family dog in the foreground is taking in the good times, hoping for something from the tray to fall from the table. The dog is a "Kooikerhondje," a Dutch breed, small to medium in size with good temperament. Jan Steen probably kept Kooikerhondjes as pets and included his dog in his paintings as Rembrandt did to a lesser extent.

Jan Steen's Samson and Delilah replays the Biblical story in a 17th century Dutch setting. The table has elements of Dutch still life, glistening silver and ceramic pitchers, the folds of a table cloth, and a partially torn loaf of bread. Samson is laid out on an oriental carpet about to have his locks clipped by a deceitful Delilah. To the right, two children are playing with a dog. Today, this painting is part of the LA County Museum's collection, located near Hollywood, CA. This may be somewhat fitting in that this version of the Samson and Delilah story is close in tone to Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah featuring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr.

Merry Company on a Terrace is a typical Jan Steen painting. Here, we observe a party that's been going on a while. The happy woman is holding her empty wine glass. To the left, Jan Steen adds his own self portrait. Here he portrays a kind of host of these festivities. He pictures himself laughing while wearing a white apron and a towel on his head. The scene has more than a dozen revelers including musicians, men and women, raised glasses, children and a dog. A discarded empty pitcher lies on its side on the floor.

From the National Gallery of Scotland's website ... "Steen's The Village School is in the satirical tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's print The Ass at School which illustrates a popular saying: 'Though an ass goes to school in order to learn, he'll still be an ass, not a horse, when he returns'. "

In Steen's school there is little to be learnt from the short-sighted teacher who is so intent on sharpening his quill that he fails to notice the chaos around him. Some children who are keen to learn have gathered around the schoolmistress who corrects their spelling but others fight, sing, make fun of the teachers and even sleep. The twenty plus unruly kids are way too much for the two adults in the room. On the right a child hands a pair of spectacles to an owl, a familiar symbol of foolishness in Steen's work.
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I think the paintings of Jan Steen would make an excellent traveling museum exhibit. Granted, Steen lived a long long time ago, and painted in an age far removed from our 21st cenutry culture. Yet, in his paintings there is much we recognize and appreciate. He loved communal celebration and joy. He loved humor and wit. His sense of humor was sophistocated and rich, full of fun. Granted, his paintings show how we are different from the Dutch of the 17th century, but Steen's paintings to the contrary also show us how much we and the 17th century Dutch have in common.

Steen's work makes me wonder. How much of what is popular in today's art world will be the topic of conversation 350 years from now? Will observers in the future be able to get to know us and our times by looking at our art? By this standard, Jan Steen was an exceptionally successful artist, certainly entertaining and informative, nearly 400 years later.

As I was writing about Jan Steen, I observed that family dogs were frequently included in his paintings.

After doing some digging, I learned that he and (to a lesser degree) Rembrandt often included "Kooikerhondjes" (a popular 17th century Dutch breed) in their paintings. These good natured and friendly dogs were often a member of a typical Dutch family, and would have been present at many family occasions.

I had already chosen Richaard Dey De Ribcowsky's Supper Time as our painting of the month. But then, when glancing at it again, it hit me. "That's the same dog Jan Steen had in his paintings!" De Ribcowsky's dog is even the same breed, a Kooikerhondje, just like Jan Steen's dogs.

De Ribcowsky was an active and well known artist in Paris, Florence, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires and New York before he came to Los Angeles in the 1920's. He is well known for his landscapes and seascapes, but we know of no other Dutch style painting done by him. He may have created this painting as a commission for a client or just something he did to add variety to the paintings he offered for sale on the walls of the Ambassador Hotel in LA. Having now seen a range of paintings by Jan Steen, it is undeniable that this is De Ribcowsky's homage to Jan Steen, the Kooikerhondje breed, and Dutch masters of the Golden Age.

St. Jerome by Anthony Van Dyke was most likely painted over four hundred years ago by Van Dyke between 1615 and 1618 while he was working along side of Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. The painting shows an older man nude sitting on a stool. It was painted from a live model.

The painting was rediscovered in the late 20th century in a farm shed in Kinderhook, New York. The person who made the discovery was Albert B. Roberts, a passionate collector of lost pieces. He described his collection as an "orphanage for lost art which have suffered from neglect." Roberts bought the painting for $600.

This painting was a study for another painting by Van Dyke called St. Jerome which currently resides in the collection of the Museum Boijmans van Gueningen in Rotterdam.

It was offered to Sotheby's by the Roberts estate and will benefit the Albert B. Roberts Foundation, Inc which provides financial support to artists and other charities. link to CNN article

Recently, we looked back at the phenomenal Edward Hopper exhibition held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Now, a new major Edward Hopper exhibition is being held in New York. Hopper lived in New York for almost 60 years. This exhibition at the Whitney Museum looks at Hopper's paintings of New York. And yes, Night Hawks will be there!

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

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