© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense ofHearing
Jan Steen(Leiden 1626 – 1679 Leiden)

ca. 1664
oil on canvas
23.8 x 19.3 cm
signed in dark paint, lower rightcorner: “JSteen” (“JS” in ligature)
JS-115

How to cite
Kloek, Wouter. “Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nded. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/self-portraitwith-a-lute-sense-of-hearing/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

In this painting Jan Steen has portrayed himself dressed informally, laughing,Comparative Figuresand playing the lute. He wears a large gray coat, with ample room for hisshirt sleeves, and red leggings. A songbook, to which he pays no attention,lies on a table at the left, which is the only piece of furniture to be seen.
Although this small self-portrait is difficult to date, it is probable that Steen
executed it in Haarlem around 1664. The definition of the face is comparable
to that of the fool in The Rhetoricians in Brussels, which dates from the same
period.[1]A comparison between the Leiden Collection painting and Self-Portrait
Playing the Lute in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid (fig 1),painted around 1666–68, reveals two striking differences.[2] First, in theMadrid painting Steen presents himself decked out in early sixteenth-century
attire emphasizing the theatricality of the scene,[3] whereas in the Leiden
Collection work he is dressed in contemporary garb. Although Steen often

Fig 1. Jan Steen, Self-Portrait
Playing the Lute, ca. 1666–68,panel, 55.3 x 43.8 cm, Fondación
Collección Thyssen-Bornemisza,Madrid, © Museo ThyssenBornemisza, Madrid© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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posed in comic roles or addressed the viewer as a cynical commentator,
there is not even a hint of self-mockery or foolish behavior in this piece. Thesecond difference lies in the degree of the finish of the two works. Steen
painted the Madrid Self-Portrait Playing the Lute quickly and skillfully, almost
as though he conceived it as an oil sketch before working it up in more detail.
However, Steen executed the Leiden Collection self-portrait with a great
refinement, particularly noticeable in the elegant hands and at the ends ofthe lute’s strings. The gray area behind the head is characteristic of Steen’s
manner of blocking in his forms before executing the final design.[4]The basis for identifying the subject as Steen is his formal Self-Portrait in theRijksmuseum (fig 2), which must date from about 1670.[5] Steen portrayedhimself many times in his paintings, and the presence of the painter’s faceFig 2. Jan Steen, Self-Portrait, ca.
1670, canvas, 73 x 62 cm,Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-383

must have been appealing for collectors, even in his own day.[6] Although it isimportant to exercise caution when identifying self-portraits in Steen’spaintings, his presence here is indisputable.[7]This painting presumably belonged to a series depicting the five senses, as arepresentation of Hearing. In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
portrayals of the five senses were popularized by series of prints by such
artists as Cornelis Cort after Frans Floris (1561) and Jan Saenredam afterHendrick Goltzius (ca. 1595).[8] Jan Steen made several series of the fivesenses. Four pieces from one such a series are preserved at Upton House,Banbury (National Trust).[9] It was common for individual paintings from a fivesenses series to become dispersed over time, which is certainly the case inthis instance.[10]- Wouter Kloek, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
Page 4 of 8Endnotes

1. Karel Braun, Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen (Rotterdam, 1980), no. 227.
2. Karel Braun, Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen (Rotterdam, 1980), no. 136; H. Perry Chapman,Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller, ed. GuidoJansen (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (NewHaven, 1996), no. 25 as ca. 1663–65.
3. The relationship of Self-Portrait Playing the Lute in Madrid to an illustration of the sanguine
temperament (“Blygeestige”) from Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia suggests that the Madrid painting
represents that high-spirited temperament. See H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, andArthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven, 1996),
182. The tradition of the lute player as “sanguine” is also represented in an engraving byPieter de Jode after Maerten de Vos. See Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering en vermaak:
betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), 24, fig. 5.
4. Steen’s method is described in detail by Martin Bijl in his essay in H. Perry Chapman, WouterTh. Kloek, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller, ed. Guido Jansen(Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven,1996), 89.
5. H. Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter andStoryteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven, 1996), no. 40. Steen certainly worked on this piece
three times, as evidenced by the alterations he made to the costume. The painting must havebeen completed in or after 1670. Given the complex genesis of this work, it cannot be ruledout that the artist portrayed himself younger than a man of about 45, the age that corresponds
to the painting’s presumed year of completion.
6. For the appeal of Steen’s self-portraits, see H. Perry Chapman, “Jan Steen as Family Man:
Self-Portrayal as an Experienced Mode of Painting,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 46(1995): 368–93; and H. Perry Chapman, “Jan Steen, Player in his Own Paintings,” in H.
Perry Chapman, Wouter Th. Kloek, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Steen, Painter andStoryteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven, 1996), 11–23.
7. Although the artist repeatedly assumes roles in his paintings, usually as a humorous
commentator, the identification is not always self-evident. Anyone who studies the selectionof so-called self-portraits given by Karel Braun (Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen [Rotterdam,© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
Page 5 of 81980], 8–9), for example, must come to the conclusion that the identification, while often
convincing, is sometimes merely wishful thinking. See also Wouter Kloek, Jan Steen(1626–1679) (Amsterdam, 2005), 22–27.
8. See also Eddy de Jongh and Ger Luijten, Mirror of Everyday Life: Genre Prints in theNetherlands, 1550–1700, trans Michael Hoyle (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Ghent,1997), 241–45.
9. Formerly Viscount Bearsted collection (Karel Braun, Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen[Rotterdam, 1980], nos. 61–64); Braun adds to these a fifth now in the collection of theRijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo (Karel Braun, Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen [Rotterdam,1980], no. 65). That piece is somewhat different in facture and also slightly smaller. Hearing isportrayed in this series by a man singing. A series of the five senses was found in 1704 in theestate of the painter and art dealer Cornelis Dusart; see Irene van Thiel-Stroman in Painting
in Haarlem 1500–1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem, 2006), 313, note37.
10. Another example of an incomplete series is that of Jacob van der Merck in Rotterdam; see
Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering en vermaak: betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit
de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), no. 38.
Complete series by Dirck Hals and Jan Miense Molenaer are preserved in the Mauritshuis;see Mauritshuis: Illustrated General Catalogue (The Hague, 1977), 103 and 158. See also,
for instance, the paintings by Dirck Hals and Isack Elyas in Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering envermaak: betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1976), nos. 26 and 23.

Provenance
Johannes Caudri, Amsterdam (his sale, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, 6 September 1809, no.
63 [for 40 florins to Spaan]).
J. B. Mettenbrinck, Amsterdam (his sale, Amsterdam, Roos, 16 April 1861, no. 36 [for 228florins to Hollander]).
H. E. ten Cate, Almelo, by 1926.
[D. Katz, Dieren, by 1940].
From whom purchased by A. Hofer in 1940–41 [for 20,000 reichsmarks, according to hisstatement on oath]; Munich Collecting Point no. 41016, 3 January 1947; restituted to Holland
on 27 January 1947, inv. no. SNK 1550 (sale, Amsterdam, Frederick Muller, 11 March 1952,no. 761 [2,500 guilders]).
John Lek, New York (his sale, New York, Parke Bernet, 29 November 1961, no. 14).
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, 1961.
Mrs. M. A. ten Haaf-Wetzlar, Groenekan (near Utrecht).
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2008, no. 51; [Johnny van Haeften, London, 2008]).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum, “Jan Steen,” 16 June–August 1926, no 75 [lent by H. E. ten Cate,
Almelo].
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals,
and Their Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham
Museum of Art, 1 February–26 April 2015, no. 39 [lent by the present owner].
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, “Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century Dutch Painting,” 17January–21 August 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].

References
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 1: 235, no. 865b. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published asBeschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
De Jonge, Caroline Henriette. Jan Steen. Amsterdam, 1939, 47–48.
© 2020 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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Braun, Karel. Alle Schilderijen van Jan Steen. Rotterdam, 1980, 178–79, no. B-257.
Jager, Maarten. Voorkeuren: een particuliere collectie. Utrecht, 1985, 64, no. 65.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries.
Exh. cat. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum ofArt. Raleigh, 2014, 200–03, no. 39.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in theGolden Age.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Editedby Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 10; 15, no. 55. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, NationalMuseum of China. Beijing, 2017
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing.” In Rembrandt and His
Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 130–31;
185, no. 55. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing,
2017.
Wang, Jia. “Dutch Painting in Golden Age.” In Journal of National Museum of China 169, no.
8 (2017): 38.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 140–41.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 190–91;
244–45, no. 62. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, ThePushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow,
2018.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of fine, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed and paper
tape along the edges, has been lined. Neither the warp or weft threads run parallel to the stretcheredges. Extremely broad cusping along the lower edge suggests the support was cut from a larger
stretched fabric. There are two paper labels and two numerical inscriptions on the stretcher andtwo numerical inscriptions on the lining, but no wax seals, import stamps or stencils along thelining or stretcher.
A light-colored ground with a granular texture has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has
been applied with loose fluid brushstrokes in thin, smooth, glazes. Under magnification, the topsof the granular ground remain exposed.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
Page 8 of 8780–1000 nanometers.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the lower right corner, but is undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2009 and remains in a good state of preservation.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection