STEEN, Jan
(b. 1626, Leiden, d. 1679, Leiden)

Merry Company on a Terrace

c. 1670
Oil on canvas, 141 x 131 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This late painting by Jan Steen is eclectic both in subject and style. The painter blends several themes (the dissolute household, the Garden of Love, child rearing) into an original composition, and he combines the manners of Gerard Terborch and the Flemish Jacob Jordaens.