Jan Steen
Leiden about 1626 - Leiden 1679
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The players (1660-1663)(AZ)
Catharina Steen, Jan Steen's daughter and Johannes Percellis II' wife, painted by Jan Steen (CBG189)
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Capiteyns-Steen (CBG169)
van Goyen-Steen (CBG176)
Lievens-Steen (CBG)
Adriaen de Voys, the brother of his sister-in-law.
his sons Cornelis Steen and Thadeus Steen
his son-in-law Johannes Percellis II
painter, inn-keeper, inspector, president and deacon of the St-Lucas Guild. (CBG176)
Jan Steen worked in several dutch towns, especially in Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Haarlem. He painted humouristic subjects, sprung from the daily life of the small peasants and the urban middle-class, giving his religious works the same treatement. He mainly represented life inside the inns, what isn't hardly surprising as he owned a coffeehouse in Delft himself and an inn in Leiden. He depicted groups of important people, who gathered to celebrate, rather than painting drinking scenes. Sometimes he used his works to moralise, emphasizing the humour to send his nevertheless serious message. Steen painted also some landscapes in the style of his father-in-law, Van Goyen.
He also made some portraits and included in his genre-paintings some wonderful still-lives. The painting of the players doesn't seem to have any educational value. This joyful composition of persons who seem to amuse themselves on a sunny day, possesses a harmony which reveales the remarkable coloriste who Steen was. (AZ)
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