Jan Steen, 'A Peasant Family at Meal-time ('Grace before Meat')', about 1665

A Peasant Family at Meal-time ('Grace before Meat')

Jan Steen

Room 23

About the work

Overview

In a quiet, dark room, a little girl folds her hands to say grace. She looks straight ahead as she has been taught to do when at prayer by her mother – her gaze is fixed so that nothing can tempt her away from her devotions. Books of emblems and instruction from the church laid emphasis on the importance of the family in the teaching of morals and guiding the spirit of the child to the right path. For a girl, this meant marriage, motherhood and the family.

Jan Steen’s paintings epitomise the two sides of Dutch ideas of behaviour in the mid-seventeenth century. Many of his paintings take us into a colourful, funny, bawdy world, apparently to make an example of bad behaviour but also to make us laugh. He also shows us the gentle, inspiring life led by the good and faithful family, bringing up their children well in adversity.

In-depth

In a quiet, dark room, a little girl folds her hands to say grace. She looks straight ahead as she has been taught to do when at prayer by her mother – her gaze is fixed so that nothing can tempt her away from her devotions. Emblem books and instruction from the church laid emphasis on the importance of the family in the teaching of morals and guiding the spirit of the child to the right path – for a girl, marriage, motherhood and the family. This was best done, it was thought, at the family table when food was served.

The little girl’s brother stands behind her, his hands beneath his wide-brimmed hat; perhaps they are folded too, ready to pray. He looks out at us, inviting us to see them as an example of the pious family, content with their lot however humble. The father sits in the shadows, cutting a loaf of black rye bread, the door open behind him. The family isn‘t wealthy. The single toy is a home-made sailboat built from the wooden sole of a shoe. The food is sparse. The earthenware soup tureen hardly holds enough to feed a family of four – but grace must be said in gratitude for what little they have. The mother stirs the tureen, her eyes lowered modestly, intent on her task. She’s neat and clean. A shaft of light from an unseen window catches the white of her shift and her bonnet, her hair tucked out of sight, as one day the little girl’s fair curls will be tamed and held captive too.

So here is an orderly, devout household, the adults training the children in godly ways – until you come to the dog. Typically, a dog licking a bowl on a kitchen floor in a painting of this period was a sign that all wasn’t well in the family – that it was slovenly and therefore probably immoral. Another reading of the image is that the little girl isn‘t thinking of her prayers but that her gaze is fastened on the soup. The boy’s hands aren’t folded beneath the hat, he isn‘t about to join the prayers, he’s simply staring. Neither parent looks to see if the children are doing their duty. They simply get on with putting the food on the table. In that case the dog stands for the dark side.

But if the first reading is correct, the dog is simply a warning of what can go wrong if children aren’t properly brought up, that they are naturally wicked unless educated and disciplined properly. The picture gives you the choice.

Jan Steen’s paintings epitomise the two sides of Dutch ideas of behaviour in the mid-seventeenth century. Steen kept an inn as well as being a popular and successful artist, so had the chance to observe a broad spectrum of humanity at close quarters. Many of his paintings take us into a colourful, funny, bawdy world, apparently to make an example of bad behaviour but also to make us laugh. He also shows us the gentle, inspiring life led by the good and faithful family, bringing up their children well in adversity with only the occasional dog to give us cause to wonder.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Peasant Family at Meal-time ('Grace before Meat')
Artist: Jan Steen
Artist dates: 1626 - 1679
Date made: about 1665
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 44.8 × 37.5 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Salting Bequest, 1910
Inventory number: NG2558
Location: Room 23
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Edward Gray

George Salting

Provenance

[Van Tol] sale, Soeterwoude (near Leiden), 15 June 1779 (lot 19), bought by Roos (146 guilders). In the collection of Prince Eugène [de Beauharnais], Duke of Leuchtenberg (d. 1824), in Munich; removed with the rest of the collection to St Petersburg by his second son, Maximilian, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg (d. 1852), between 1851 and 1852; inherited by his son, Nikolai Maximilianovich, Prince Romarowski, 4th Duke of Leuchtenberg (d. 1891), and lent (with other works) to the Gallery of the Imperial Academy of Fine Art, St Petersburg, from 1886; inherited by his younger natural son, Duke Georgi Nicolaievich of Leuchtenberg, and in his collection in St Petersburg in 1904. Later in the possession of Sulley & Co., London. It was in the collection of George Salting, London, by 1906, when it was lent to the Rembrandt Tercentenary Exhibition in Leiden. Salting Bequest, 1910.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2020

Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

The National Museum of Western Art

18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020

The National Museum of Art

3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
2021

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Australia

5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021

Bibliography

1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1831

Auswahl der vorzüglichsten Gemälde der Herzoglich Leuchtenbergischen Galleri, München 1831
1839

Musée du Louvre, Notice des dessins placés dans les galeries du Musée Royal, au Louvre, Paris 1839
1845

J.N. Muxel, Catalogue des tableaux de la galerie de feu son Altesse royale Monseigneur, le Prince Eugène, duc de Leuchtenberg à Munich, Munich 1845
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1980

K. Braun, Alle tot nu toe bekend schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980
1982

P.C. Sutton, 'Jan Steen', Bulletin of the Philadephia Museum of Art, LXXVIII/337-338, 1982, pp. 29-31
1983

M.F. Durantini, The Child in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Ann Arbor 1983
1984

J.I. Watkins (ed.), Masters of Seventeenth Century Dutch Genre Painting, Philadelphia 1984
1986

W.E. Franits, 'The Family Saying Grace: A Theme in the Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century', Simiolus, XVI/1, 1986, pp. 36-49
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1993

W.E. Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, Cambridge 1993
1999

K. Schrenk, Jean Siméon Chardin, 1699-1779: Werk, Herkunft, Wirkung (exh. cat. Staatliche Kunsthalle, 4 June 1999 - 22 August 1999), Karlsruhe 1999
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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This scene of two men and a woman making music is not a representation of everyday life. Positioned on a wide terrace overlooking an impressive formal garden, the figures don’t quite seem to belong in their surroundings. The men sit on either side of the singing woman, one holding a glass of wine...

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This grisaille work (painted in shades of black, white and grey) is a copy of a picture by Jan Steen known as ‘Old Wooer, Young Maid’. It’s a more appropriate title, emphasising that the man is probably making advances to the younger of the two women, who turns towards him.The flute protruding fr...

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You've viewed 6 of 10 works

Jan Steen, 'A Peasant Family at Meal-time ('Grace before Meat')', about 1665

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Jan Steen