Celebrating the Birth
From humorous scenes to hidden messages, explore the moral lessons in Jan Steen's art.
Celebrating the Birth (1664) by Jan SteenThe Wallace Collection
Jan Steen is well known for his humourous scenes of everyday life, his depictions of dissolute households, of doctors, quacks and lovesick young women, rowdy children with undisciplinied adults who invariably give a bad example.
His pictures are filled with silent but vivid commentary; they recall proverbs and expressions, and they convey a sense of energy through color and composition.
This painting, at first look, sets the scene for a lively and happy family event.
A proud father holds up his newborn tightly wrapped in red.
Around him swarm womenfolk, servants, neighbours, all busy celebrating.
Except perhaps for his wan-looking wife recovering in bed in the background.
Quite a party – but for just one sinister figure who looks on with a crafty smile and who is about to leave through the open door.
The figure holds up two fingers above the baby’s head, telling us that the father is a cuckold – the baby isn’t his, but the stranger’s.
The strange, out-of-place objects refer to old Dutch sayings and are other signs that all isn’t well in this cheerful household.
Jan Steen is making us smile, but giving us a moral story too. On the floor lies a warming pan – the marriage-bed is cold.
Food on the floor is sometimes used a sign of a badly run household and broken eggs of someone’s sexual misdoings.
Behind the two cooks, a young girl hangs up a limp sausage, maybe to tell us that the father is impotent.
The young woman with her back to us may be learning a moral lesson, but she’s wearing red stockings and her shoe slips off – probably signs that she’s already ‘no better than she should be’.
Next to her, a pregnant girl sips wine, something we would disapprove of today.
Each of the characters in the picture is very distinct and tells us what kind of person they might be and even what they are thinking perhaps.
Jan Steen uses clear bright colours to tell us his story. But the vivid reds have a message. The baby is wrapped in red, the young woman wears scarlet, especially her stockings, and the chair she touches is red.
This is the chair of the head of the household, which should be father’s - but it’s empty. He isn’t in control. But elsewhere, colours gleam – on the pewter plates, the jug, the cheeks of the cook, the white of the tablecloth.
While Jan Steen's paintings are often humorous, they also offer a glimpse into the darker side of human nature. His work encourages us to look beyond the surface and consider the hidden meanings behind the scenes.
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