Jan Steen
(Leiden 1626–1679)
Figures Before an Inn
c. 1650
signed lower right: JSteen (JS in ligature)
oil on panel
49.7 x 67.5 cm (19⅝ x 26⅝ in.)
‘One does not know what to admire more: the perfect drawing, the exquisite composition, the harmonious colour, or the funny expression of character. As character painter, Jan Steen has not been surpassed by anyone.’
Abraham Bredius, ‘Jan Steen’, Elsevier Illustrated Magazine, vol. 17, January–June 1907, p. 14
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Artwork details
In Figures before an Inn, Jan Steen offers a glimpse into seventeenth-century Dutch daily life. Beneath a sky suffused with the warm hues of an approaching sunset and with a small town visible in the distance, a group of peasants gathers outside a dilapidated inn after a day’s work. The scene centres on two men engaged in a game of beugelen (ringball), attempting to drive a heavy ball through a movable ring using a stick fitted with a small scoop. Around them, several other figures animate the scene, including the bearded man who brazenly gropes the young woman beside him, an interaction that draws the viewer’s eye away from the central game.
While landscapes occasionally played a prominent role in Steen’s earlier compositions, the depth and atmospheric sensitivity of the scenery here, particularly the rendering of the sunset, are unusual within his oeuvre. This painting likely dates from the very late 1640s or the first quarter of the 1650s, when Steen was living in The Hague and had recently married the daughter of the landscape painter Jan van Goyen (1596–1656). Steen’s family background in brewing and tavern-keeping offered Steen an environment that continuously provided rich material for his paintings. Indeed, not long after completing this work, he leased a brewery in Delft, further connecting his professional and personal experience with the tavern scenes that became a defining feature of his art.
Prof. Dr Jan Bleuland, Utrecht (1756–1838);
his posthumous sale, Lamme, Utrecht, 6 May 1839, lot 309, for 880 florins;
Gerard Munnicks van Cleeff (1797–1860), Utrecht;
his posthumous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4 April 1864, lot 88, for 3,350 francs;
Ernest C. Innes, Esq., The Boltons, London;
sold by the order of the executors of Mrs Ernest C. Innes, Christie’s, London, 13 December 1935, lot 154, to ‘M. Asscher, London’;
with Firma D. Katz, Dieren, 1935;
Mrs A. Ongering-Schwarte (1890–1967), by 1958;
by whom sold, Sotheby’s, London, 26 March 1969, lot 81, for £20,000, to Tan Bunzl;
Miss A.C. Innes;
sold by order of her Executors, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1972, lot 26, for 30,000 guineas to ‘Jermyn’;
Mrs George F. Getty II (b. 1930 or 1931);
her sale, Christie’s, London, 28 November 1975, lot 87, for £26,000;
Private collection, New York, until sold;
Sotheby’s, New York, 12 January 1979, lot 126, for $85,000;
with Richard Green, London, by 1979;
Private collection, by the early 1980s;
The Klesch Collection.
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, 1922.
St Louis, Saint Louis Museum of Art, long-term loan, 1973–75.
T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen: Étude Sur L’Art En Hollande, The Hague 1856, pp. 109, no. 44 and 160, under no. 368;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1907, vol. I, p. 198, no. 742;
Firma D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van 16e en 17e eeuwsche Hollandsche, Vlaamsche en Italiaansche schilderijen (o.a. van Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Joos van Cleve, P.P. Rubens, Lorenzo di Credi) en antiquiteiten uit de collectie der Fa. D. Katz te Dieren, exh. cat., Huize Belvoir, Nijmegen 1936, no. 75;
Firma D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van 16e en 17e eeuwsche schilderijen in het Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum Eindhoven, exh. cat., Stedelijk Van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven 1936, p. 24, no. 76, repr.;
E. Trautscholdt, ‘Steen, Jan, Maler’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. XXXI, Leipzig, 1937, p. 513;
K. Braun, Alle tot nu bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam, 1980, p. 90, no. 31, repr. p. 91.
If you would like to use this image for educational purposes, please contact us.
Hover to zoom to maximum level or click to enlarge
Jan Steen
(Leiden 1626–1679)
Figures Before an Inn
c. 1650
signed lower right: JSteen (JS in ligature)
oil on panel
49.7 x 67.5 cm (19⅝ x 26⅝ in.)
‘One does not know what to admire more: the perfect drawing, the exquisite composition, the harmonious colour, or the funny expression of character. As character painter, Jan Steen has not been surpassed by anyone.’
Abraham Bredius, ‘Jan Steen’, Elsevier Illustrated Magazine, vol. 17, January–June 1907, p. 14
Artwork details
Jan Steen was born in Leiden, yet his exact date of birth is not known. He enrolled at the University of Leiden at the age of 20 in 1646, setting his birth date at around 1625/1626. Two years later, he was recorded as one of the founders of the Saint Luke’s Guild of Leiden. It is said Steen studied with Jan van Goyen (1596–1656) in the Hague, Nicolaes Knüpfer (1603–1655) in Utrecht and Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685) in Haarlem.1
Jan Steen painted the present picture in the first quarter of the 1650s when he was living in The Hague and had just married the daughter of Jan van Goyen. Steen came from a family of brewers and briefly was one himself in Delft, so this subject matter no doubt felt natural to him.2 In this painting, the landscape is the more dominant element and the smaller figures are typical of Steen’s early career, as well as a sophistication and overall mood that is more in line with his later work. From 1656 to 1660, Steen lived in a small town near Leiden, and his increased interest in still life details and careful finish of his paintings suggest he was in contact with the work of the Leiden fijnschilders, a group of painters who sought to reproduce reality in outstanding, minute detail, such as Gerard Dou (1613–1675) and Frans van Mieris (1635–1681). In 1661, he moved to Haarlem and in his nine years there, he created his largest, most complex scenes containing emblems, proverbs and other moralising messages. He moved back to Leiden in 1670, where he was elected deken of the Leiden guild in 1674. He stayed in Leiden until his death in 1679.3
Notes
1. A.K. Wheelock Jr., Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1995, p. 1504.
2. Encyclopædia Britannica, ‘Jan Steen’, accessed 30 May 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jan-Havickszoon-Steen.
3. Wheelock 1995, pp. 1504–1505.
Prof. Dr Jan Bleuland, Utrecht (1756–1838);
his posthumous sale, Lamme, Utrecht, 6 May 1839, lot 309, for 880 florins;
Gerard Munnicks van Cleeff (1797–1860), Utrecht;
his posthumous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4 April 1864, lot 88, for 3,350 francs;
Ernest C. Innes, Esq., The Boltons, London;
sold by the order of the executors of Mrs Ernest C. Innes, Christie’s, London, 13 December 1935, lot 154, to ‘M. Asscher, London’;
with Firma D. Katz, Dieren, 1935;
Mrs A. Ongering-Schwarte (1890–1967), by 1958;
by whom sold, Sotheby’s, London, 26 March 1969, lot 81, for £20,000, to Tan Bunzl;
Miss A.C. Innes;
sold by order of her Executors, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1972, lot 26, for 30,000 guineas to ‘Jermyn’;
Mrs George F. Getty II (b. 1930 or 1931);
her sale, Christie’s, London, 28 November 1975, lot 87, for £26,000;
Private collection, New York, until sold;
Sotheby’s, New York, 12 January 1979, lot 126, for $85,000;
with Richard Green, London, by 1979;
Private collection, by the early 1980s;
The Klesch Collection.
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, 1922.
St Louis, Saint Louis Museum of Art, long-term loan, 1973–75.
T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen: Étude Sur L’Art En Hollande, The Hague 1856, pp. 109, no. 44 and 160, under no. 368;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1907, vol. I, p. 198, no. 742;
Firma D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van 16e en 17e eeuwsche Hollandsche, Vlaamsche en Italiaansche schilderijen (o.a. van Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Joos van Cleve, P.P. Rubens, Lorenzo di Credi) en antiquiteiten uit de collectie der Fa. D. Katz te Dieren, exh. cat., Huize Belvoir, Nijmegen 1936, no. 75;
Firma D. Katz, Tentoonstelling van 16e en 17e eeuwsche schilderijen in het Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum Eindhoven, exh. cat., Stedelijk Van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven 1936, p. 24, no. 76, repr.;
E. Trautscholdt, ‘Steen, Jan, Maler’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. XXXI, Leipzig, 1937, p. 513;
K. Braun, Alle tot nu bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam, 1980, p. 90, no. 31, repr. p. 91.
If you would like to use this image for educational purposes, please contact us.