Jan Steen

Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Steen (c.1626-1679) created lively genre scenes with humor and psychological insight unmatched by his contemporaries. His rowdy households, boisterous taverns, and chaotic family gatherings are so characteristic that "a Jan Steen household" became a Dutch proverb for messy scenes. Unlike moralistic genre painters, Steen approached his subjects with comic warmth, often comparing him to playwright Moliere. He frequently included himself and family members in his paintings.

Steen trained under Nicolaus Knupfer, Adriaen van Ostade, and Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married. He co-founded the Leiden painters' Guild of Saint Luke in 1648 with Gabriel Metsu. Between paintings, Steen ran a brewery called "The Snake" in Delft without much success and later opened a tavern when the art market collapsed in 1672. He produced about 800 paintings, 350 surviving, including 70 history paintings. His technical skill rivaled the Leiden "fine painters" in rendering textures. Works hang at the Mauritshuis, the Rijksmuseum, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.