Where can you see Jan Steen in Amsterdam?

At the Rijksmuseum: The Feast of Saint Nicholas, The Merry Family, The Burgher of Delft and his Daughter and The Dancing Lesson. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

What is Jan Steen's most famous work in Amsterdam?

The Feast of Saint Nicholas, of about 1665 to 1668, at the Rijksmuseum. A family on the morning of Saint Nicholas: a girl hugs her doll, a boy cries over the birch in his shoe, and the grandmother beckons him behind the curtain.

When and where was Jan Steen born?

About 1626, at Leiden, Dutch Republic. Jan Steen died buried 3 February 1679, at Leiden, Dutch Republic, aged about 53.

What is Jan Steen known for?

A messy house is still called a Jan Steen household in Dutch. Married the daughter of the painter Jan van Goyen. Often put himself into his own pictures. Jan Steen was a Dutch painter, of the Dutch Golden Age.

Painter, 1626 to 1679

Jan Steen

Jan Steen painted families eating, drinking, quarrelling and making music, children running wild and adults no better. The Dutch still call a house in disorder a Jan Steen household, and the Rijksmuseum has the best of them.

Born: 1626, Leiden, Dutch Republic
Died: 1679, Leiden, Dutch Republic
Movement: Dutch Golden Age
In Amsterdam: 4 works in 1 museum

Where to see Jan Steen in Amsterdam

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

Rijksmuseum4 works

The Feast of Saint Nicholas
about 1665 to 1668
A family on the morning of Saint Nicholas: a girl hugs her doll, a boy cries over the birch in his shoe, and the grandmother beckons him behind the curtain.
The Merry Family
1668
Parents and grandparents drink, sing and smoke while the children copy them, under a note on the mantelpiece that warns what the young learn from the old.
The Burgher of Delft and his Daughter
1655
A man in black seated on the steps of his house by a Delft canal, his daughter beside him and a beggar woman asking for alms.
The Dancing Lesson
about 1660 to 1679
Children make a cat dance to the flute, a small scene of cruelty played for laughs.

The life of Jan Steen

Steen was born in Leiden, the son of a brewer, and worked in Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Haarlem. He married the daughter of the landscape painter Jan van Goyen, and for a time ran a brewery and later an inn.

He is thought to have painted about eight hundred pictures, many of them full of jokes and proverbs, with himself often among the revellers. Under the fun there is usually a moral, about drink, idleness or vanity.

What to know

A messy house is still called a Jan Steen household in Dutch
Married the daughter of the painter Jan van Goyen
Often put himself into his own pictures

Born: About 1626, Leiden, Dutch Republic
Died: Buried 3 February 1679, Leiden, Dutch Republic

Jan Steen: common questions

Where can you see Jan Steen in Amsterdam?: At the Rijksmuseum: The Feast of Saint Nicholas, The Merry Family, The Burgher of Delft and his Daughter and The Dancing Lesson. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Jan Steen's most famous work in Amsterdam?: The Feast of Saint Nicholas, of about 1665 to 1668, at the Rijksmuseum. A family on the morning of Saint Nicholas: a girl hugs her doll, a boy cries over the birch in his shoe, and the grandmother beckons him behind the curtain.
When and where was Jan Steen born?: About 1626, at Leiden, Dutch Republic. Jan Steen died buried 3 February 1679, at Leiden, Dutch Republic, aged about 53.
What is Jan Steen known for?: A messy house is still called a Jan Steen household in Dutch. Married the daughter of the painter Jan van Goyen. Often put himself into his own pictures. Jan Steen was a Dutch painter, of the Dutch Golden Age.