1666
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
The Family Concert is a 1666 oil by Jan Steen, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
A living room glows with candlelight while six people play music and laugh. A boy in the front saws at a cello with a pipe, snapping a string. Steen packed the scene with little jokes—broken strings, spilled wine, a dog stealing food. These small messes were his way of showing life as it really was, not polished or perfect. The painting feels like a snapshot of a party where things go slightly wrong. To see how other artists filled rooms with everyday chaos, look up Jan Steen.
This well-appointed interior sets the scene for the courtship ritual of music-making, through which men and women became acquainted by singing and playing instruments together. The boy in the foreground, mimicking the adults, strums a cello with a pipe and breaks a string, a subtle allusion to the perils of unbridled passion. Jan Steen, one of the Dutch Republic’s most prolific comic painters, crafted his scenes upon the contemporary notion that comedy mirrors everyday life.
Sir Charles Bagot, Bart., by 1833 [according to Smith 1833]. Presumably Prince Anatole Demidoff, Villa San Donato, near Florence (died 1870); by descent to his nephew Prince Paul Demidoff (died 1885) and included in the sale of the contents of Villa San Donato, Pillet, Mannheim, and Le Roy, Florence, March 15, 1880, lot 1054, bought in; remained in the Demidoff collection, passing into the possession of Paul Demidoff’s widow, Helena Troubetskoi, Pratolino, near Florence; included in the group of 13 paintings from the Demidoff collection sold to trustees of the Art Institute through…
Baltimore Museum of Art, Musical Instruments and Their Portrayal in Art, April 26–June 2, 1946, no. 35. Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Paintings of 17th Century Dutch Interiors, December 1, 1967–January 7, 1968, no. 19. Art Institute of Chicago, A Case for Wine, July 11–September 20, 2009, no cat.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century.
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