Jan Steen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jan Steen
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Self portrait (c. 1663–1665) in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
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| Born |
Jan Havickszoon Steen
c. 1626 |
| Died | buried 3 February 1679 (aged 52–53) |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Education | Nicolaes Knupfer, Adriaen van Ostade, Jan van Goyen |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Dutch Golden Age painting |
Jan Havickszoon Steen (born around 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a famous Dutch Golden Age painter. He was one of the best genre painters of the 17th century. His paintings are known for showing deep understanding of people, a great sense of humor, and lots of bright colors.
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Life of Jan Steen
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Jan Steen was born in Leiden, a town in Southern Holland. His family was wealthy and owned a brewery. They also ran a tavern called The Red Halbert for two generations. Jan's father even rented him his own brewery in Delft from 1654 to 1657. Jan was the oldest of at least eight children.
Like his famous contemporary Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen went to the Latin school. He also became a student in Leiden to learn painting. We don't have official records of his training. However, people at the time said he learned from three painters: Nicolaes Knupfer, Adriaen van Ostade, and Jan van Goyen. Jan van Goyen later became his father-in-law. Steen's paintings show influences from Knupfer in how he used colors and arranged his scenes. Another artist who inspired him was Isaac van Ostade, who painted country scenes.
In 1648, Jan Steen and Gabriël Metsu started the painters' Guild of Saint Luke in Leiden. Soon after, Steen became an assistant to the well-known landscape painter Jan van Goyen (1596–1656). He moved into van Goyen's house in The Hague. On October 3, 1649, he married van Goyen's daughter, Margriet. They had eight children together.
Steen worked with his father-in-law until 1654. Then, he moved to Delft and tried to run a brewery called De Slang ("The Snake"). This wasn't very successful. After a big explosion in Delft in 1654, the art market became very slow. During this time, Steen painted A Burgomaster of Delft and his daughter. It's not clear if this painting was a portrait or a scene from everyday life.
Steen lived in Warmond, near Leiden, from 1656 to 1660. He then lived in Haarlem from 1660 to 1670. He painted a lot during both these periods. In 1670, after his wife died in 1669 and his father died in 1670, Steen moved back to Leiden. He stayed there for the rest of his life.
When the art market crashed in 1672, known as the Year of Disaster, Steen opened a tavern. In April 1673, he married Maria van Egmont, and they had another child. In 1674, he became the president of the Saint Luke's Guild. Jan Steen passed away in Leiden in 1679. He was buried in a family grave at the Pieterskerk.
Artistic Influences
The Rederijkers and Theater
In 1945, Sturla Gudlaugsson, an expert on Dutch painting, wrote a book. It showed that a big influence on Jan Steen's art was a group called the Rhetoricians, or Rederijkers. These groups were like theater clubs.
People often think Jan Steen's paintings show real Dutch life in the 17th century. But not everything he painted was a true picture of his daily world. Many of his scenes include dream-like country settings and a dramatic style, much like theater.
Jan Steen's connection to theater is clear. First, his uncle was part of the Rhetoricians in Leiden, where Steen was born and lived. Second, Jan Steen painted many scenes from the lives of the Rederijkers. An example is his painting Rhetoricians at a Window from 1658–1665. This painting is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The warmth, humor, and hopefulness of the people in the painting suggest that Jan Steen knew these men well. He wanted to show them in a positive way.
Theater in Paintings
Because of his lively and moralizing style, it made sense for Steen to use ideas from theater in his art. There is strong proof that the people in Steen's paintings are often like characters from a play, not real people.
Steen painted many pictures on a theme often called The Doctor's Visit. One example is a painting from 1665–1670 in the Rijksmuseum. The story is simple: a doctor visits a young woman and finds out she has a secret, not an illness. The doctor is a funny character. He wears an old-fashioned hat called a biretta, a doublet (a type of jacket), and a small ruffled collar. He is dressed in the style of 1570, not 1670. But the young woman wears the latest fashion of the time, a loose kimono-style robe from Japan.
This mix of old and new styles can only mean one thing: this is not a real doctor. It's an actor wearing a traditional theater costume. According to experts, such an unusual and old-fashioned costume would never be seen on a real doctor in Steen's time.
Jan Steen's Works
Everyday life was Jan Steen's main subject. Many of his genre scenes, like The Feast of Saint Nicholas, are very lively and sometimes a bit wild. In fact, "a Jan Steen household" became a Dutch saying. It means a messy or chaotic scene. Small clues in his paintings seem to suggest that Steen wanted to warn viewers, not encourage them to act this way. Many of Steen's paintings refer to old Dutch sayings or stories.
He often used his family members as models for his paintings. He also painted several self-portraits. In these, he didn't try to make himself look overly grand or important. Jan Steen's works often showed lively scenes that reminded people of his own home. This way of putting personal stories into his art led to the Dutch saying "A Jan Steen household." This saying is still used today to describe a chaotic but lively home.
Steen also painted other subjects. He created historical, mythological, and religious scenes. He painted portraits, still lifes, and natural landscapes. His portraits of children are especially well-known. He was also famous for how well he used light and for his amazing attention to detail. This can be seen in his paintings of Persian rugs and other fabrics.
Steen was a very productive artist. He painted about 800 pictures, and around 350 of them still exist today. His work was highly valued by people at the time, and he was paid well for it. He didn't have many students—only Richard Brakenburgh is known. However, his art inspired many other painters.
In two of his paintings, The way you hear it and As old men sing, so children squeal, six of the people look exactly the same. They are in the same poses, and their positions in the painting are similar.
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A Burgomaster of Delft and his daughter, 1654, Rijksmuseum
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Skittles Players Outside an Inn, 1660, National Gallery
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The Card Players in an Interior, c. 1660, Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection
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Marriage of Tobias and Sarah, circa 1660, Museum Bredius
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The lute player, 1660, Rijksmuseum Twenthe
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La Toilette, 1659–1660, Rijksmuseum
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Twelfth-Night Feast, 1662, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (54.102)
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Fantasy Interior with Jan Steen and the Family of Gerrit Schouten, 1663, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
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The Dancing Couple, 1663, National Gallery of Art
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Beware of Luxury, 1663, Kunsthistorisches Museum
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The Doctor's Visit c. 1665, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
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The Feast of Saint Nicholas, c. 1665–1668, Rijksmuseum
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The way you hear it, circa 1665, Mauritshuis
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As old men sing, so children squeal, 1662, Musée Fabre
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The Merry Family, 1668, Rijksmuseum
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See also
In Spanish: Jan Havicksz Steen para niños
