Painting of several light-skinned people gathered around a table in front of a gilded mirror, playing instruments. At left, seated next to a woman in an off-the-shoulder gown, a man in a plumed hat plays a lute. At center right, another man plays a cello, while a dog and cat eat from a dish underfoot.

The Family Concert

1666

Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626–1679)

Holland

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.

Oil on canvas

Painting and Sculpture of Europe