The Family Concert

1666

This well-appointed interior sets the scene for the courtship ritual of music-making, through which men and women became acquainted by singing and playing instruments together. The boy in the foreground, mimicking the adults, strums a cello with a pipe and breaks a string, a subtle allusion to the perils of unbridled passion. Steen crafted his scenes upon the contemporary notion that comedy mirrors everyday life

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626–1679)

Date

1666

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

86.6 × 101 cm (34 1/8 × 39 3/4 in.); Framed: 101.6 × 115.6 × 5.1 cm (40 × 45 1/2 × 2 in.)

Origin

Holland

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Gift of Timothy B. Blackstone