STEEN, JAN HAVICKSZ (1626-1679), Dutch subject painter, was born at Leyden in 1626, the son of a brewer. According to Houbraken he studied under Nicolas Knupfer, a German artist, at Utrecht, and under Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married in 1649. In November 1646 he enrolled him self as a student of the university at Leyden and in 1648 he was one of the founders of the Guild of St. Luke in that city. He settled at The Hague in 1649, and at Delft in 1654. In 1657 he is said to have been a brewer at Delft. He is repeatedly men tioned in documents in the Delft archives during 1656-57. He was a resident of Haarlem during the years 1661-69. He then moved to Leyden, where he received permission to open a tavern in 1672. In 1673 he took a second wife, Maria van Egmont, the widow of a Leyden bookseller. He died at Leyden Feb. 3, 1679.
The works of Jan Steen are distinguished by correctness of drawing, admirable freedom and spirit of touch, and clearness and transparency of colouring. But their true greatness is due to their intellectual qualities. In the wide range of his subjects, and their dramatic character, he surpasses all the Dutch figure painters, with the single exception of Rembrandt. His productions
range from the stately interiors of grave and wealthy citizens to tavern scenes of jollity and debauch. He painted chemists in their laboratories, doctors at the bedside of their patients, card parties, mzrriage feasts—even religious subjects, though in these he was least successful. His rendering of children is especially delightful. Portraits from his brush are comparatively rare.
The National Gallery contains three pictures by Jan Steen, of which the "Music Master" is the most important, and other excellent exam ples of his art in England are preserved in the Royal, the Bute, and the Northbrook collections, at Apsley House and Bridgewater House, and in the galleries of The Hague, Amsterdam, and the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (Leningrad). A remarkably fine example of his work is the "Grace Before Meat" in the collection of Charles Morrison, London.
See Hofsteede de Groot, Catalogue of Dutch Painters (1907) ; F. Schmidt Degener, Jan Steen (1927) (trans. by G. Renier).