Jan Havicksz. Steen

Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863);
Thence by direct family descent.

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The single member oak panel is in good condition. The planar alignment is good with no distortions. The paint layers are in good condition, there are minor losses along the top and right edges. These appear relatively recent and are probably due to movement within the frame. There are two scratches to the paint surface located on the upper right edge 15.5cm from the top and in the lower left quadrant where a 7cm scratch is located 2.5cm from the left edge. There is also a minor loss at the lower edge, located 14cm from the right. None of these could be described as significant and the losses to the paint layers are relatively minor. The overall adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears good. There appears to be two distinct campaigns of restoration, the small scattered areas of over-paint do not indicate any significant damage or loss. There is a discoloured varnish layer present. This yellowed layer appears slightly patchy and across the main figures black coat has sunk slightly to give a patchy matt appearance. There is a light layer of surface dirt and dust present. The painting was examined in the frame.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Both stylistically and in its detail this domestic interior can be allied with a number of works from the mid 1660s, a time when Jan Steen led a settled family life in Haarlem, where he had moved in 1660 and where he was to spend his most productive years as a painter. Certain details tend to be repeated in other works of this time, such as the dog, which is precisely replicated in the Mauritshuis' As the Old Sing, so the Young Pipe (dated by Braun 1663-5), in the Kassel The Twelfth Night feast  (dated 1668) and in the Duke of Rutland's Grace before Meat (dated by Braun 1662-66).¹

The 1660s marked the apex of Steen's career as a painter of both genre and historical subjects. He was open to a wealth of influences which combined to produce some of the most memorable paintings of the Dutch golden age. In nearby Amsterdam the freer brushwork of Gabriel Metsu, another pupil of Steen's possible tutor Nicolas Knupfer, seems to have struck a chord with him, while the large peasant scenes of Jacob Jordaens, who in the 1660s was working for the new Stadhuis in Amsterdam, lent him inspiration for subject matter and characterisation. As well as the many small-scale works that he painted, of which the present work is a good and well-preserved example, he conceived some monumental historical and biblical works at this time of which the Marriage of Tobias and Sarah (Brunswick, Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum) and Iphigenia (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) are amongst the best.

1. See K. Braun, Alle tot nu toe bekendeschilderijn van Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980, nos. 201, 296 and 174, all reproduced.