Jan Steen, 'Skittle Players outside an Inn', probably 1660-3

Skittle Players outside an Inn

Jan Steen

Room 16

About the work

Overview

This sparkling little picture is unusual among Jan Steen’s paintings. We are outside an inn – The White Swan, to judge by its sign – rather than in its dark interior, Steen’s more typical setting.

The energetic pose of the man bowling suggests that he’s serious about his game and that, given a moment or two, the skittles will be scattered everywhere. His companions keep a close watch, while a little boy stands straight and gazes intently, a crutch under his arm. Steen has captured their moods and characters with the minimum of facial detail, their poses and gestures enough to tell us about them.

Steen’s paintings are robust and entertaining. Perhaps the fact that he owned and kept an inn brought him close to the people and incidents he painted, making them immediate, lively and true to life.

In-depth

This sparkling little picture is unusual for a Jan Steen painting. We are outside an inn – The White Swan, to judge by its sign – rather than in its dark interior, Steen’s more usual setting. People are enjoying the evening sun, perhaps as much as the entertainment.

The sun makes long shadows, but touches of white here and there – shirts and collars, and a dot of a cap on the woman behind the fence – bring the more sombre colours of the buildings and other garments to life. The leaves of the slender birch trees shimmer and the rump of the bay horse gleams. The inn seems to be a well-run establishment: the building is in good order, the customers are well behaved and the flagons or jugs visible are made of expensive Rhenish pottery.

The energetic pose of the man bowling suggests that he’s serious about his game and that, given a moment or two, the skittles will be scattered everywhere. His companions keep a close watch, as does the little boy with the crutch. Steen has captured their moods and characters with the minimum of facial detail, their poses and gestures enough to tell us about them. The man with his hat straight on his head leans forward, his arms behind him, perhaps a self-appointed referee. The man beside him, hand tucked in his shirt and hat jauntily on the side of his head, has a far more casual attitude – the flagon in his hand may be a clue as to why. Perhaps all is not quite as orderly as it seems. On the patchy grass beside the skittle party, a man sat next to the woman drinking from a long slender glass makes his plans for the evening clear with the hand sliding up under her cheerful, red skirt.

Painting in the wet-in-wet technique allowed Steen to work at speed and gave his images a spontaneity and liveliness that marks them out. Perhaps the fact that he owned and kept an inn brought him close to the people and incidents he painted, making them more immediate and true to life.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Skittle Players outside an Inn
Artist: Jan Steen
Artist dates: 1626 - 1679
Date made: probably 1660-3
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 33.5 × 27 cm
Acquisition credit: Salting Bequest, 1910
Inventory number: NG2560
Location: Room 16
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton

George Salting
Frame: 17th-century Dutch Frame

Provenance

Possibly in the Jacob Cromhout and Jasper Loskart sale, Amsterdam, 7–8 May 1709 (lot 78), 53 guilders, and/or the Cornelis van Dyck sale, The Hague, 9–10 May 1713 (lot 40), 51 guilders. It was in the Pieter Testas the Younger sale, Amsterdam, 29 March sqq. 1757 (lot 41), bought by J. ten Compe (172 guilders) and (probably) the Coenraad van Heemskerck sale, The Hague, 7 October 1765 (lot 30), bought by Foucquet (140 guilders); Randon de Boisset sale, Paris, 27 February sqq. 1777 (lot 128), bought by Poullain (1,600 francs); Poullain sale, Paris, 15 sqq. March 1780 (lot 77), bought by Boileau (2,600 francs); Comte de Vaudreuil sale, Paris, 24–25 November 1784 (lot 63), bought by Paillet (3,401 francs). In the possession of J. В. P. Le Brun by 1792; Destouches sale, Paris, 21 March sqq. 1794 (lot 104), bought by Drouillet or Boileau (4,500 francs); said to have been in a Gérard(?) Saint-Maurice sale in Paris in 1796 or 1797, 3,430 francs; in an Anon. [Montaleau?] sale, Paris, 19 sqq. July 1802 (lot 144), bought by Henri (2,900 francs); d[e] P[reuil] sale, Paris, 25–29 November 1811 (lot 95), bought by Lebrun (4,950 francs). In the collection of the Prince de Talleyrand, Paris, apparently by 1814; it is in the catalogue of the [Talleyrand] sale announced for 9 July 1817 (lot 29) but this sale did not take place and the whole collection was bought by William Buchanan. Buchanan sold No. 2560 to Edward Gray, Harringay House, London, apparently in 1817; it had passed to Alexander Baring (later 1st Baron Ashburton) by 1829, when it was exhibited at the BI; exhibited at the RA in 1871 and 1890, lent by Lord Ashburton. The Ashburton collection was sold en bloc in 1907 to Messrs Agnew and others. In the collection of George Salting, London, by 1909, when it was lent to the Steen Exhibition, Dowdeswell Galleries, London. 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

2018

A Dutch Golden Age: Painters, Places and People in the 17th Century

Cannon Hall Museum, Park and Gardens

16 June 2018 - 16 September 2018

Bibliography

1802

A. Paillet, Catalogue de tableaux: Formant une réunion imposante d'articles, pour la plupart de première classe, par les plus grands maîtres des écoles d'Italie, Paris 1802
1824

W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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
1856

T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen, La Haye 1856
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
1967

G. Agnew, Agnew's, 1817-1967, London 1967
1980

K. Braun, Alle tot nu toe bekend schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam 1980
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1996

H.P. Chapman, W.T. Kloek and A.K. Wheelock, Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller (exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 28 April - 18 August 1996; Rijksmuseum, 21 September 1996 - 12 January 1997), Washington 1996
1997

M. Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century, Zwolle 1997
1998

R. White, J. Pilc and J. Kirby, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIX, 1998, pp. 74-86
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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You've viewed 6 of 10 works

Jan Steen, 'Skittle Players outside an Inn', probably 1660-3

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