Diner in an Inn Garden

Detail from Jan Steen Der Wirtshausgarten (‘The Tavern Garden’) c.1660.
Stiftung Preussicher Kulturbesitz inv. #795
Photo © Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, photographer Jörg P. Anders
made available under (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)

Jan Steen (c.1626-1679) Dutch painter, born Leiden, son of a (well-off) brewer and tavernkeeper. Set up the St Luke’s (Painters’) Guild in Leiden in 1648. Lived in various places in the Netherlands, painting and owning taverns. A prolific painter with a theatrical style, he specialised in usually riotous scenes of everyday life. This painting of customers eating in an inn garden after a day out is restrained by comparison. The man in the hat smiling at the painter and de-boning a herring may well be a self-portrait.

For an image of the whole of this painting, go to Wikimedia Commons.