Jan Havicksz. Steen

Miss C.E. Younge;
By whose executors sold, London, Christie's, November 22, 1902, lot 26, for 520 Guineas, to Martin Colnaghi;
Sir W. Cuthbert Quilter, Bt.;
His sale, London, Christie's, July 9, 1909, lot 117, for 620 Guineas, to Agnew's;
With Sedelmeyer, by 1911;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, November 29, 1974, lot 36;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, April 2, 1976, lot 87, to Andries Boost;
Collection K. Sander, Bloemendaal, Amsterdam, 1984;
With K. & V. Waterman, Amsterdam, c.1986;
With Hans Cramer, The Hague, 1990;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, July 4, 1997, lot 22.

The Hague, Spaanse Hof, 1990.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1908, vol. I, p. 192, cat. no. 725a;
E. Trautscholdt, 'Jan Steen,' in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, begründt von Ulrich Thieme und Felix Becker, vol. xxxi, Leipzig 1937, p. 513, no. 725a;
K. Braun, Meesters der Schilderkunst, Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980, p. 127, cat. no. 286, reproduced;
H. M. Cramer, Untitled brochure, The Hague 1991, p. 2;
W. Kloek, Jan Steen (1626 - 1679), Amsterdam 2005, p. 69, fig. 70;

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This panel has an old cradle but the surface is stable and it has been cleaned more recently. The varnish is a little uneven and thick and could be attended to. There appears only to be restorations in the black and green clothing of the figures, and while there may be others here and there they do not show either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. Steen's delicate and creative technique is very much in evidence here and although the picture could be hung as is, the varnish could also be improved.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the eighteenth century Jan Steen was considered a dissolute painter of low-life scenes, a reputation that carried over into popular imagination until very recently.  Steen was, in fact, a far more complicated man and artist, and his paintings are sophisticated commentaries on life and society in the later seventeenth century. He was known for his merry companies, set in family homes, inns or brothels, but while the ostensible subjects were of people enjoying themselves, the real themes were often deception or sexual intrigues, or both, and the compositions were often inspired by his Dutch and Flemish predecessors of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

Steen includes the people playing tric-trac in at least five other compositions, including works in Leningrad, Amsterdam and Berlin, but here he has reduced the composition to its essentials.  A young man is slumped in a chair studying a tric-trac board, and looking somewhat the worse for drink, while his young female opponent, seems very much in control of the situation.  The other three figures serve as observers and, in a sense, commentators on the action.  The old woman at the left is keeping score of the drinks, and possibly the games.  Her presence, taken in conjunction with the man holding the coin at the right, suggest that more than a simple game of tric-trac is being played.  Certainly the curtained bed in the background would seem to indicate that the setting is a brothel rather than a tavern.  The role of figure in the center of the composition is somewhat harder to judge:  is he merely advising the young man on the game or is he involved in a more complicated sexual contest?  He is at the very center of the painting but set slightly further back than the two main characters, and thus while his role is essential, it is as a bridge, not a protagonist.  The action flows from left to right and also snakes forward and back in space, from the observer to player to observer.  Wouter Kloek points out that the spareness of the scene and the subject suggest the influence of Lucas van Leyden, particularly his depictions of the power and deceitfulness of women, of which the present work is a clear example.¹  

Braun has dated the painting to circa 1667,² when Steen produced a wide range of subjects in a variety of styles.  The Tric-Trac Players is loosely painted in relatively thin pigments.  Steen has allowed areas of ground to show through, warming and enlivening the composition.  We can see this clearly in the man's green stockings and the transparent strokes of the young woman's skirts.  Elsewhere, in the figure's faces, the dark outlines of Steen's preliminary drawing are visible, and just to the left of the young woman's face is what appears to be a pentimento showing her original pose to be bent further forward.  All this adds to the impression that this is a work that Steen just dashed off, when in fact it is a carefully composed painting by one of the great masters of the genre.

1  W. Kloek, Jan Steen (1626 - 1679), Amsterdam 2005, p. 69.
2  K. Braun, Meesters der Schilderkunst, Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980, p. 127, cat. no. 286.