Merry Company on a Terrace

Jan Steen

ca. 1670 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Steen made a specialty of self-deprecating depictions of his own unruly household. This painting centers on the inviting figure of his wife, who looks out at the viewer with an empty wineglass in her hand. Steen, his face flushed with drink and a comic hat on his head, sits at the far left; next to him, with a sausage in his cap, is Hans Worst, the same theatrical figure depicted by Hals in a nearby work. To this day in the Netherlands, “a household by Jan Steen” remains proverbial for disorder and domestic chaos.

Artist

Jan Steen

Date

ca. 1670

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Fletcher Fund, 1958