Jan Steen
1625/1626–1679
Jan Steen was born in Leiden to a brewer and grain merchant. He enrolled at Leiden University in 1646 and became a founding member of the local Saint Luke’s Guild two years later. He worked in several Dutch cities, with an important mature period spent in Haarlem.
Steen connected domestic festivities, music and disorder with proverbs, theatre and moral instruction. Interacting figures and small material details carry his stories. He also painted portraits, religious subjects and mythology. Throughout his life he remained Catholic within a predominantly Protestant republic.
His father leased a Delft brewery for him, and Steen later obtained permission to run a Leiden inn. These documents encouraged a legend of the dissolute painter. The museum biography stresses the lack of evidence that his life resembled his unruly pictures. Comic self-portrait roles should be distinguished from verified biography.
