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Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour.
Apr 9, 2024 · Jan Steen was a Dutch painter of genre, or everyday, scenes, often lively interiors bearing a moralizing theme. Steen is unique among leading 17th-century Dutch painters for his humour; he has often been compared to the French comic playwright Molière, his contemporary, and indeed both men treated.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626 – buried 3 February 1679) was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century (also known as the Dutch Golden Age). His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour.
- Dutch
- February 3, 1679
- Leiden, Netherlands
Jan Steen was born at Leiden, where he mainly worked, with periods in Haarlem, Utrecht and The Hague. He is famous for his witty moralising scenes of domestic life, which are well represented in the National Gallery's large group of paintings by the artist.
One of the most adaptable painters of the 17th-century Dutch Republic, Jan Steen is best known for producing a type of genre scene that married comic or amusing scenes of coarse behavior with the middle-class domestic environment. The son of a brewer, Steen was born in Leiden in 1626 and eventually enrolled at Leiden’s university for one year.
Jan Steen. Jan Steen was born in Leiden, where his father was a brewer and grain merchant. The date of his birth is not known, but the artist was twenty years old when he enrolled at the University of Leiden in 1646. Two years later he is recorded as one of the founding members of Leiden’s newly formed Saint Luke’s Guild.
Jan Steen’s paintings touch the viewer directly. The infectious humour and recognizable characters are enormously appealing. He painted with visible ease and his pictures exude a sense of energy. Steen’s characterization of the personages in his paintings is spot on. Moreover, no one could ...
