Terms and Conditions
The artist, title and date of the work must be listed anywhere the image is reproduced:
Jan Steen
Interior (c. 1661-1665)
oil on wood panel
55.6 × 43.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1922
Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
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About this work
Jan Steen’s Interior, like his portrayals of dissolute households, is a catalogue of domestic vices, in which the notion of the virtuous family is turned upside down, its moral transgressions recorded with humour. In a typically comic touch, Steen has included himself as a laughing drunkard. The meticulous execution reflects the influence of such Leiden fijnschilders (fine painters) as Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris. However, the greater emphasis on the narrative linking of the main figures’ gestures and expressions suggests that the painting was created while Steen was living in Haarlem.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.c.l.: JS (monogram) teen
Accession Number
1248-3
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Humour and Satire Relationships and Interactions
Subjects (specific)
domestic cat (species) drunkenness laughing nursing (mammal feeding) revellers seated figures vice (culture-related concept)
Frame
By A. Ercolani and Son, London 1922
Frame
A plaque inlaid on the reverse of the frame identifies the maker. The frame is a reproduction based on seventeenth-century models, using tortoise shell and ebony with stepped corners. Though the frame was presumably built as a representation of a Dutch frame it might also be associated with a German Baroque form.3 Its use on the Steen is demonstrative of early twentieth-century notions of historical reproductions and the belief that a museum frame should be elaborate. The frame was made at the time of acquisition. and is an exceptionally fine example of craftsmanship that would have been expensive to build, making use of costly materials and highly developed workmanship.
Notes
1 The frame was made at the time of acquisition, (Frank Rinder letter to the Felton Bequest Committee, 6 April 1922).
2 For a detailed discussion of the use of turtle shell in this form of veneering see Donald C. Williams, Tortoiseshell and imitation tortoiseshell, Proceedings of the sixth international symposium on wood and furniture conservation, 2002. This distinction in the shell was brought to my attention by Paul Mitchell.
3 See Pieter van Thiel, Framing in the Golden Age – Picture and Frame in 17th Century Holland, Rijksmuseum, 1995, p. 25, n. 4 and Claus Grimm, The Book of Picture Frames, Abaris Books, New York, 1981.
Frame Details
Framemaker
A. Ercolani and Son
27 Claremont Rd, Walthamstow, London
Date
19221
Materials
The principal materials of the frame are tortoise shell and ebony on a softwood base. The chassis of the frame is a solid timber section, which is unusual but reflective of the seventeenth-century frames it imitates. The ripple-moulded decorative strips are shaped in ebony and the scotia sections are veneered. The shell is likely to be turtle and in this instance the blond colour and the grain pattern of the timber provide the underlayer of colour and subtle pattern.2
Frame Condition
Good original condition.
Dimensions
80.7 x 69.0 x 5.8 cm; sight 77.1 x 65.4 cmMore Information
National Portrait Gallery