Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense ofHearingca. 1664

Jan Steen(Leiden 1626 –1679 Leiden)

23.8 x 19.3 cm

oil on canvas
signed in dark paint, lower rightcorner: “JSteen” (“JS” in ligature)
JS-115Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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How To Cite
Kloek, Wouter. "Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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In this painting Jan Steen has portrayed himself dressed informally,

Comparative Figureslaughing, and playing the lute. He wears a large gray coat, with ample
room for his shirt 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 tobe seen. Although this small self-portrait is difficult to date, it is probablethat Steen executed it in Haarlem around 1664. The definition of the faceis comparable to that of the fool in The Rhetoricians in Brussels, whichdates 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 sixteenthcentury attire emphasizing the theatricality of the scene,[3] whereas in theLeiden Collection work he is dressed in contemporary garb. Although

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

Steen often posed in comic roles or addressed the viewer as a cynicalcommentator, there is not even a hint of self-mockery or foolish behavior inthis piece. The second difference lies in the degree of the finish of the twoworks. Steen painted the Madrid Self-Portrait Playing the Lute quickly andskillfully, almost as though he conceived it as an oil sketch before working
it up in more detail. However, Steen executed the Leiden Collection selfportrait with a great refinement, particularly noticeable in the elegant hands
and at the ends of the lute’s strings. The gray area behind the head ischaracteristic 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 inFig 2. Jan Steen, Self-Portrait, ca.
1670, canvas, 73 x 62 cm,Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SKA-383

the Rijksmuseum (fig 2), which must date from about 1670.[5] Steen
portrayed himself many times in his paintings, and the presence of thepainter’s face must have been appealing for collectors, even in his own
day.[6] Although it is important to exercise caution when identifying selfportraits in Steen’s paintings, his presence here is indisputable.[7]This painting presumably belonged to a series depicting the five senses,
as a representation 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 after Hendrick Goltzius (ca. 1595).[8] Jan Steen made several
series of the five senses. Four pieces from one such a series are© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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preserved at Upton House, Banbury (National Trust).[9] It was common forindividual paintings from a five senses series to become dispersed overtime, which is certainly the case in this instance.[10]-Wouter Kloek© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
Page 5 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 andStoryteller, ed. Guido Jansen (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art;Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (New Haven and London, 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, 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 Havenand London, 1996), 182. The tradition of the lute player as “sanguine” is also represented in
an engraving by Pieter de Jode after Maerten de Vos. See Eddy de Jongh,Tot lering envermaak (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London and Wisbech, 1976), 24, fig. 5.
4. Steen’s method is described in detail by Martin Bijl in his essay in 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)(New Haven and London, 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 and London, 1996), no. 40. Steen certainly workedon this piece three times, as evidenced by the alterations he made to the costume. The
painting must have been completed in or after 1670. Given the complex genesis of this work,
it cannot be ruled out that the artist portrayed himself younger than a man of about 45, theage 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 and London, 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,1980], 8–9), for example, must come to the conclusion that the identification, while often
convincing, is sometimes merely wishful thinking. See also W. Kloek, Jan Steen© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of HearingPage 6 of 8(1626–1679) (Amsterdam, 2005), 22–27.
8. See also Eddy de Jongh and Ger Luijten, Spiegel van alle dag. Nederlandse genreprenten
1550–1700 (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 is portrayed in this series by a man singing. A series of the five senses wasfound in 1704 in the estate of the painter and art dealer Cornelis Dusart; see Irene van ThielStroman in Painting in Haarlem 1500–1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum(Haarlem, 2006), 313, note 37.
10. Another example of an incomplete series is that of Jacob van der Merck in Rotterdam; see
Eddy de Jongh, Tot lering en vermaak (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London andWisbech, 1976), no. 38. Complete series by Dirck Hals and Jan Miense Molenaer arepreserved 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 inEddy de Jongh, Tot lering en vermaak (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (London andWisbech, 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 March1952, no. 761 [2,500 guilders]).
John Lek, New York (his sale, New York, Parke Bernet, 29 November 1961, no. 14).
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]).
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
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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].

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 . 8 vols.
London, 1907–27, 1:235, no. 865b. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts .
10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
De Jonge, C. H. J. Jan Steen. Amsterdam, 1939, 47–48.
Braun, Karel. Alle schilderijen van Jan Steen. Rotterdam, 1980, 178–79, no. B-257.
Jager, M. Voorkeuren: Een particuliere collectie. Utrecht, 1985, 64, fig. 65.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries .
Exh. cat. Raleigh, N.C., North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum ofArt. Raleigh, 2014, 200–3, no. 39.

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 thestretcher edges. Extremely broad cusping along the lower edge suggests the support was cut© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Self-Portrait with a Lute: Sense of Hearing
Page 8 of 8from a larger stretched fabric. There are two paper labels and two numerical inscriptions on thestretcher and two numerical inscriptions on the lining, but no wax seals, import stamps or stencils
along the lining 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 at780–1000 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.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection