Jan Steen - The Humorous Baroque Master

If you think about Dutch Baroque artists, chances are that three names will come to mind. You may think of the incredibly productive Rembrandt, the calming scenes of the perfectionist Johannes Vermeer, or perhaps the truthful portraits of Frans Hals. All true artists in the sense that they were very technically skilled and they saw the world through an artistic lens. And then there is the people's painter, Jan Steen. There is a saying in Dutch that is still used today. It says a Jan Steen household. It is an expression for a messy and cluttered household, but also happy and carefree. The Merry Family, painted in 1668 by Jan Steen, is a perfect example of such a household, but there are many others from his hand as well. Just for a moment, compare a peaceful and quiet interior scene by Vermeer with one of the boisterous and chaotic scenes by Steen. Both painted at the same time, and they even lived and worked in the same city for a few years. But they had a completely different approach to art and life. So, let's have a little closer look at the Merry Family, which shows a happy household in a messy living room. The mother is sitting in the middle of the table and holds a young child in her lap. She is singing with her own mother next to her and shows a large amount of cleavage. The father on the left of the table is singing loudly as well and raises his glass while holding a violin in his left hand. The boy outside the window is smoking a pipe and has a horn in his right hand. In the foreground, the young boy in green is drinking wine, which is provided to him by his sister who is holding a jug of wine. Both of them look older than their height would indicate. Two other children are playing music. The boy on the right with the red hat is playing the flute, and the boy in the left background is playing a kind of bagpipes. On the right background, a boy and a girl are holding pipes with tobacco. And then there's the dog, standing in front of the table, which is filled with bread and meat. The dog obviously hopes that some of the food will fall off, and it looks like he doesn't have to worry much about that. So why would Steyn paint scenes like this? Well, this is a self-portrait of Steyn in his late 30s. He looks to me like someone who enjoys life. Just compare that to some self-portraits of Rembrandt from the same period. And fun fact, both Rembrandt and Steyn attended the same high school, although 20 years apart from each other. There's also other evidence that Steyn loved some good humor. He actually came from a family of brewers, spending a lot of time in bars, and he also loved to have several alcoholic beverages as well. He had even started his own brewery in his 20s but had failed to succeed, leaving him with quite some debt. So he embraced the fun and messy parts of life. But at the same time, he had some morals. The merry family shows that contrast nicely. The floor in the living room is a mess. We can identify a frying pan, half an eggshell, a large bowl, two jugs, and a spoon. In contrast, the objects on top of the painting are neatly organized. And on the top right, Steyn included a piece of paper saying which can be translated as It's actually the title of another comparable painting by Steyn which you can see here. The saying means that the vices of the youth are learned from the examples set by their elders. Like, if your parents are drinking plenty of wine every day, the kids will probably follow soon. So while humor was the main motivation for Steyn, he often combined that with a moral message. And in many cases, he used children to convey this message. The behavior of the children in this painting is not only intended to make you laugh, but to make you evaluate the behavior of their parents. This message refers to the behavior of both parents and the grandmother. But primarily to the mother as during that time, she was the main responsible for the moral values in the family. Here's another such scene, entitled Beware of Luxury, showing how the mother has fallen asleep and the kids are taking advantage of the situation. And the dog as well. So the question is whether these were realistic scenes of households during the 17th century? To some extent, yes. But Steyn exaggerated things a little bit. He actually loved theater, and performances of rhetorician guilds were a very popular form of entertainment during that time. Here you can see Steyn's depiction of such a theatrical performance taking place in the window. And so, the characters in Steyn's paintings are inspired by these theatrical characters. In other words, Steyn exaggerated certain characters and behaviors in his work, both to entertain the audience and to make his moral lessons more explicit. Whether he warns about drinking too much, cheating in a card game, or giving the wrong example to our children, the scenes by Steyn are mostly happy and cheerful. Look for example at this painting, entitled The Dancing Couple. There are few Baroque paintings with so many smiling people. But once again, Steyn does include some subtle clues that drinking, eating, and having fun should not be the only thing we care about. The presence of cut flowers, broken eggshells, and soap bubbles are all warnings about the transience of earthly pleasures. And the people back in the day would understand these references. I hope you enjoyed this discussion of the interior scenes by Jan Steyn. He painted many more of these scenes, which are on display in museums around the world. And while Jan Steyn may be best known for these scenes, he has also painted a bunch of biblical, historical, and mythological scenes. In the end, he had to pay his debts for his filled brewery business. Well, if you enjoyed this video, please hit the thumbs-up button. And leave a comment down below with your thoughts about Jan Steyn or any suggestions about which kind of art you would like me to discuss in a future video. Thanks for watching!