Jan Steen’s Histories

The Mauritshuis unites a selection of Jan Steen’s finest history paintings in this new exhibition. Steen, a 17th century Dutch artist best known as a painter of chaotic and disorderly scenes of everyday life – which gave rise to the popular Dutch proverb ‘a Jan Steen household’ – also painted a variety of different, lesser-known subjects throughout his career including: stories from the Bible, classical mythology and antiquity. This exhibition of 21 paintings will highlight Steen’s versatility as an artist and his keen and ambitious eye for telling amusing stories. Until the mid 18th century, Steen’s history paintings were amongst his most expensive works, but as time went on their value diminished, and they have remained a misunderstood part of the artist’s oeuvre to this day. Find out more about the ‘Jan Steen’s Histories’ exhibition from the Mauritshuis’s website.

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