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The Effects of Intemperance:
Catalogue entry

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About the catalogue

Entry details

Full title
The Effects of Intemperance
Artist
Jan Steen
Inventory number
NG6442
Author
Neil MacLaren and Christopher Brown
Extracted from
The Dutch School, 1600-1900 (London, 1991)

Catalogue entry

, 1991

Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).

Plate 357

Vol. 2, p. 367, Plate 357

Jan Steen, The Effects of Intemperance (No. 6442) © The National Gallery, London

Signed, on the step, lower centre; JSteen (JS in monogram).

Vol. 2, p. 479, 1

Steen (No. 6442) © The National Gallery, London

Oil on panel, 76 × 106.5 cm (30 × 42).

There is an inscription HOSPITAL above the round window of the building in the right background: it was not removed during cleaning.

Cleaned in 1977.

Discussion

The woman slumped on the left, whose purse is being picked by a child, on the extreme left, is sleeping off the effects of alcohol. She illustrates the proverb ‘De Wijn is een spotter’ (Wine is a mocker’). As in many other paintings by Steen, it is the foolishness of their elders which encourages the children to misbehave.1 Here the child throwing roses in front of the pig illustrates a popular saying about foolish behaviour.2 In the background an old man is seducing a young girl, another of the pitfalls of alcohol. Above the head of the drunken woman hangs a basket in which can be seen reminders of the fate of those who lack self‐discipline — the crutch and clapper of the beggar (Lazarusklep) and the birch of judicial punishment.

Steen’s moralistic message is that it is only by actively resisting the temptations of excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures that poverty and degradation can be avoided.

De Vries dates the painting to 1663–53 which seems acceptable to the present writer.

[page 1.432]

COPIES: An old copy was in the collection of D. A. J. Kessler, London, in 1929.4 Another — or possibly the same — copy was in the collection of Percy B. Meyer in 1953.5

PROVENANCE: Bought by the English art dealer Chaplin in Amsterdam, 1829; Emmerson sale, London, 2 May 1829 (lot 116); Delafield collection; Norton collection; H. A. J. Munro sale, London, 6 April 1878, lot 105: purchased by Graves for W. B. Beaumont, later created Lord Allendale. Purchased by the National Gallery from the Trustees of the Allendale Settlement under the terms of a private treaty sale, 1977.

EXHIBITIONS: RA 1929, No. 192; RA 1938, No. 244; RA 1952–3, No. 569; Aberystwyth/Cardiff/Swansea, ‘Dutch Genre Paintings’, 1958 , No. 48; The Hague, Mauritshuis, ‘Jan Steen’, 1958–9 , No. 30.6

REFERENCES.

General: HdG , No. 111 (the description and part of the provenance refer to the copy which was with Meyer in 1953, see above); ex. cat., The Hague, Mauritshuis, op. cit. , No. 30.

In text:

1. This is in effect the sense of all the In weelde Siet Toe (Beware of luxury) and the Bedurven huishouwen (Dissolute households) paintings. For recent discussions of these themes (with previous literature) see Philadelphia/Berlin/London, 1984, cat. nos. 104 and 109. (Back to text.)

2. ‘Strooit geen rozen voor de varkens.’ (Back to text.)

3. In the Mauritshuis, ex. cat., op. cit. (Back to text.)

4. Dimensions and support not known. This copy is mentioned in Mauritshuis, ex. cat., op. cit. (Back to text.)

5. The provenance of HdG No. 111 under ‘Sales’ refers to this copy which is on canvas (43 × 54 in.). (Back to text.)

6. The misleading provenance given by HdG was clarified by De Vries in the Mauritshuis ex. cat., op. cit. (Back to text.)

Abbreviations

3 Other Abbreviations
RA
Royal Academy of Arts, London; Royal Academician

List of references cited

Davies 1959
DaviesMartinNational Gallery Catalogues: The British School, revised edn, London 1959
Davies and Gould 1970
DaviesMartinrevised by Cecil GouldNational Gallery Catalogues: French School Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post‐Impressionists, etc.London 1970
Hofstede de Groot 1907–28
Hofstede de GrootC.Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century10 vols (vols 9 and 10 are in German)LondonStuttgart and Paris 1907–28

List of exhibitions cited

Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Swansea 1958
Aberystwyth; Cardiff; Swansea, Dutch Genre Paintings, 1958
London 1929
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450‐1900, 1929
London 1938‐9
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Seventeenth Century Art in Europe, 1938‐9
London 1952–3
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Dutch Pictures 1450‐1700, 1952–3
Philadelphia, Berlin and London 1984
Philadelphia, Museum of Art; Berlin‐Dahlem, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussicher Kulturbesitz; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Masters of Seventeenth‐Century Dutch Genre Painting, 1984
The Hague 1958–9
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Jan Steen, 1958–9
The Hague 1979
The Hague, Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, Zo wijd der wereld strekt, 1979

Explanatory Notes on the Catalogue

SEQUENCE The paintings are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the artist or school.

ATTRIBUTION A picture catalogued under the name of the artist is considered to be by him. ‘Attributed to’ qualifies the attribution. ‘Ascribed to’ indicates a greater degree of doubt. ‘Workshop of’ or ‘Follower of’ are self‐explanatory. ‘Style of’ indicates that the painting is an imitation or copy painted after the artist’s lifetime. A list of attributions which have been changed from the first edition of this catalogue (published in 1960) is given on pages 510–13.

INVENTORY NUMBER The National Gallery inventory number is to be found to the left of the picture title.

MEASUREMENTS These are given in centimetres, followed by inches in brackets. Height precedes width.

RIGHT and LEFT These indicate the viewer’s right and left, unless the context clearly implies the contrary.

BIOGRAPHIES MacLaren’s biographical notes on painters have been expanded and brought up to date when there is no accessible and reliable modern literature. Where such literature exists, these notes have been kept to a minimum.

REFERENCES The bibliographical references, though selective, include publications which appeared before mid‐1989. References to books and articles which appeared subsequently and which the author considered to be of importance are referred to within square brackets but could not be taken into account in the catalogue entries themselves.

LISTS AND INDEXES At the back of this volume are lists of paintings acquired since the last edition of this catalogue and changed attributions. There are also indexes to religious subjects, profane subjects, topography, previous owners, years of acquisition and inventory number.

ILLUSTRATIONS The plates of the paintings included in the catalogue are in the second volume, together with all the signatures which could be reproduced. The comparative plates are included in Volume 1.

[page 1.xiv]

VAN ‘van’ has been used in lower case throughout in accordance with The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. The ‘van’ has been omitted for certain artists as is customary, e.g. ‘Jacob van Ruisdael’, but ‘Ruisdael’.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES op. cit. ’ may refer back to books and articles referred to under the artist’s biography (rather than in the particular catalogue entry).

CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S Unless another location is mentioned, the sales referred to took place in London.

CLEANING The cleaning of paintings which took place before 1945 is not referred to, unless the circumstances were exceptional.

CONDITION All the paintings have been examined during the preparation of this catalogue. In many cases the condition is described, sometimes in considerable detail. If the condition is not described, the painting can be presumed to be in good condition.

PROVENANCE AND EXHIBITIONS There are separate headings for provenance and exhibitions in individual catalogue entries. In certain cases, when nineteenth‐century paintings were included in dealers’ exhibitions for example, these two sections have been conflated , .

VAN GOGH The National Gallery’s four paintings by Van Gogh (Inv. nos. 3861, 3862, 3863 and 4169) are not catalogued in this volume but in The French School by Cecil Gould.

CORNELIUS JOHNSON The one painting (Inv. no. 6280) in the National Gallery by Johnson, who was born in London of Dutch parents but moved to the Netherlands after the outbreak of the Civil War, is not included in this catalogue but in The British School by Martin Davies.

Explanatory note

This volume contains the illustrations for the catalogue of the Dutch School published in Volume 1.

The pictures and their attributions are discussed in detail in the catalogue; in this volume only the title, the artist (or attribution) and the inventory number are given.

At the end of the volume are plates of all the signatures that could be reproduced. In the interest of clarity some of these have been enlarged.

About this version

Version 2, generated from files NM_CB_1991__16.xml dated 17/02/2025 and database__16.xml dated 16/02/2025 using stylesheet 16_teiToHtml_externalDb.xsl dated 03/01/2025. Entries for NG212, NG221, NG830, NG871, NG990, NG1674, NG1675, NG2531, NG4503, NG6350, NG6442, NG6444 and NG64835 proofread following mark-up and corrected.

Cite this entry

Permalink (this version)
https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DDZ-000B-0000-0000
Permalink (latest version)
https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DCU-000B-0000-0000
Chicago style
MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown. “6442 The Effects of Intemperance”. 1991, online version 2, February 17, 2025. https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DDZ-000B-0000-0000.
Harvard style
MacLaren, Neil and Brown, Christopher (1991) 6442 The Effects of Intemperance. Online version 2, London: National Gallery, 2025. Available at: https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DDZ-000B-0000-0000 (Accessed: 26 March 2025).
MHRA style
MacLaren, Neil and Christopher Brown, 6442 The Effects of Intemperance (National Gallery, 1991; online version 2, 2025) <https://data.ng.ac.uk/0DDZ-000B-0000-0000> [accessed: 26 March 2025]