Steen, Jan Havickszoon

Dutch painter. He painted humorous genre scenes, mainly set in taverns or bourgeois households, as well as portraits and landscapes. An example is The Prince's Birthday (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

He studied under Nicholas Knupfer (1603–1660), Adriaen van Ostade, and Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married. He worked in The Hague, Delft (where he had a brewery), and Leiden, where in his later years he kept an inn. His great sensitivity as an artist – he had a real gift of composition and colour – saved his humorous genre scenes from triviality. He also produced historical and religious works, and was one of the most prolific painters of the period.