Jan Havicksz. Steen

Prof. Dr. Jan Bleuland, Utrecht (1756-1838);

His deceased sale, Utrecht, Lamme, 6 May 1839, lot 309 for 880 florins;

Municks van Cleef, Utrecht;

His deceased sale, Utrecht, Paris, 4 April 1864, lot 88, for 3,350 francs;

With D. Katz, Dieren;

Mrs. A. Ongering-Schwarte (1890-1967), by 1958;

By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 26 March 1969, lot 81, for £20,000 to Tan Bunzl;

Miss A. C. Innes;

Sold by order of her Executors, London, Christie's, 7 July 1972, lot 26, for 30,000 Guineas to Jermyn;

Mrs. George F. Getty II;

By whom sold, London, Christie's, 28 November 1975, lot 87 for £26,000;

Private Collection, New York, until sold, New York, Sotheby's, 12 January 1979, lot 126 for $85,000;

With Richard Green, London by 1980;

Acquired by the parents of the present owners in the early 1980s.

Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, 1922;

St. Louis, Art Museum, on loan 1973-5.

T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen: Étude Sur L'Art En Hollande, The Hague 1856, nos. 44 & 368;

C. Hofstede de Groot,  A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. I, London 1907, p. 198, no. 742;

K. Braun, Alle tot nu bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980, p. 90, no. 31, reproduced p. 91.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This painting is on an oak panel with one joint at lower centre, which has been cradled long ago, possibly in the late nineteenth century. There has been one rather later crack running straight across in the sky quite near the top. Fairly old retouching remains all along the original joint while the upper crack has just a minimal narrow line of recent retouching. The panel does however appear otherwise extremely stable, with no trace of movement within the paint, past or present. There has been a little minor recent restoration over a rather older varnish. The signature on the barrel at the right base corner is slightly indistinct, with traces of far older varnish and a little old retouching nearby at the edges of the barrel, but it is nevertheless evident with careful scrutiny and magnification. Occasional old retouching can be seen but the only retouchings clearly visible under ultra violet light are minute superficial touches along the grain in the upper sky. There are some older retouches along the very top edge and a tiny sprinkling of older touches around the chimney of the cottage. The lower sky has remained immaculately pure and untouched. Occasional parts of the foliage against the sky are faintly thin but the only serious retouching in the entire painting is along the original joint. One little apparent pentiment appears to have been touched out long ago, the arm of the man reaching into the bodice of the shrinking girl on the right seems to have had his reach reduced more discreetly by some, now darkened, old retouching. Essentially however the figures, the sky in general, the landscape and cottage throughout is in beautifully intact condition, calmly unworn and undisturbed. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

The subject of this picture is as anything else the time of day.  The distant sky, whose colours anticipate sunset, dominate the upper part of the picture and the distant village and dunes, defines its mood, while the long shadows cast by the peasants playing kolf in the foreground underscore this mood, reminding us that the heat of a summer's day is cooling as afternoon gives way to evening.  The discarded spade in the left foreground suggests that the players may well have done a hard day's work before gathering outside the inn to drink, smoke and play, although the amorous advances that one of them is making on the innkeeper's daughter may perhaps suggest that he has made a head start on the sauce.   

While Jan Steen painted pictures with a more dominant landscape content such as this one in the earlier part of his career, the understated sophistication of this work and its underlying mood shows that by the time he painted it he had attained a considerable degree of maturity.  Braun's dating of this work to circa 1650-54 is convincing, although from 1653 onwards Steen's figures become larger than here, and stay that way, so this picture probably dates from the first quarter of the 1650s.¹  At that time Steen, who had just married the daughter of the landscape painter Jan van Goyen, was living in the Hague.

Although the game played outside the inn is rightly called kolf, it seems to be a rather different game to the one played on ice and to be seen in winter landscapes by Steen's contemporaries.  Kolf as seen here was a popular game often played in the gardens of inns, and may be, as Braun suggests, perhaps the precursor of "mini-golf".²  In fact, the game of kolf survives in The Netherlands, although it has evolved substantially since the 17th Century, and like the modern game of golf, has little in common with its antecedent.

Steen's family were brewers, as Steen was himself briefly to become in Delft (and he later became an innkeeper), and the subject matter of this picture was no doubt more than familiar to him.  By this date Steen was already treating his figures in a comic, caricatural manner, and this can be seen in several of the figures here, especially perhaps in the protuberant jaw of the peasant playing the ball.  Although there is no documentary support for the hypothesis, it is tempting to see in works like this one stylistic evidence that Steen may have studied with Ostade in Haarlem.  It is perhaps more likely that Steen noticed Ostade's prints of scenes outside taverns.  It may be worth noting too that while Steen married Jan van Goyen's daughter, and the two painters are said to have been friends, there is no stylistic evidence whatsoever that Van Goyen influenced the landscapes of his son-in-law in any painting.

1.  See under Literature.
2.  Idem.