Prayer Before the Meal
Jan Steen(Leiden 1626 – 1679 Leiden)1660
oil on oak panel
54.3 x 46 cm
signed and dated in dark paint on last line of large
placard: “JAN STEEN 1660”
JS-116© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 2 of 11

How to cite
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. “Prayer Before the Meal” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur
K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived
December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

This serene painting of a family praying before beginning its meal is imbued with

Comparative Figures[1]

quiet spirituality. A stanza from Proverbs 30:7–9 inscribed on a placard hanging on
the rear wall serves as the family’s creed: “Three things I desire and no more / Above
all to love God the Father / Not to covet an abundance of riches / But to desire what
the wisest prayed for / An honest life in this vale / In these three all is based.” [2] The
family’s plain clothes, simple furniture, bare walls, and modest meal of bread, cheeseand ham indicate that they truly live by this creed. As the mother prays while
cuddling her child, the father reverently holds his hat before his face.[3] A key
hanging behind the father symbolizes his trustworthiness.[4]Inscribed on the belkroon (a wooden chandelier with a bell hanging in the middle) arewords from the Lord’s Prayer: “u wille moet geschieden” (thy will be done). The
father and mother remind themselves of life’s transitory nature “in this vale” byplacing on the shelf an extinguished candle, a large book (probably a Bible), and a

Fig 1. Adriaen van Ostade, Prayer
before the Meal, 1653, etching (stateii/iv), 15.3 x 13 cm, National Galleryof Art, Washington D.C., Rosenwald
Collection, 1943.3.8309

skull.[5] The paper hanging over the shelf reads “Gedenckt te sterven” (Think on
Death). In their faith, however, death is followed by resurrection, for a wreath ofwheat crowns the skull. Wheat, which must first die and be buried in the earth before
growing into a new plant, is a symbol of hope. Like the grain, man must die and beburied to achieve eternal life.[6]The earliest of Jan Steen’s four representations of this subject, this scene belongs to along-established iconographic tradition.[7] Early seventeenth-century paintings andprints reflect the ideal of a pious, harmonious and fertile family life that had
developed within Dutch society, an ideal also expressed in the writings of Jacob Cats
(1577–1660). Protestant and Catholic families alike commissioned portraits ofFig 2. Infrared reflectogram of The
Prayer Before the Meal, JS-116© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 3 of 11themselves praying before a meal.[9] Artists frequently alluded to harmony andfertility by including biblical texts,[10] especially the third verse of Psalm 128 (127 in
the Catholic Bible): “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thinehouse.”[11] The grapevine climbing around the window above the mother indicates that
Steen also consulted Psalms. Steen’s scene resembles earlier prayer-before-the-meal
images in that it includes a religious text. However, in the depiction of a humble
rather than wealthy family, it differs from such prototypes. Far closer in mood andcharacter is Adriaen van Ostade’s (1610–84) intimate etching of 1653 (fig 1), which
was probably Steen’s primary compositional source.[12]Neither the biblical text nor the furnishings in this humble home identify the family’s
religious persuasion. While Steen’s image transcends denomination, he originallyconceived the painting as a Catholic image. As has been noted for some time, a large
cross, seemingly a crucifix, vaguely visible through the overlying paint, once hungabove the father’s head. Steen eliminated the cross and replaced it with objects on the
shelf that carry comparable symbolic associations with death and resurrection, such as
the skull and its wreath of wheat, that would have been applicable to Catholics andProtestants alike.
Infrared reflectography has revealed much information about Steen’s creative process
in this work, including evidence that his compositional changes were far more
extensive than previously realized (fig 2). It appears that Steen initially sketched in
his compositional ideas with a searching line drawn in black chalk, which he thendefined more carefully with broad brush strokes.[13] He repositioned a number of
elements, including the window and the pitcher on the bench under the window, andadded others, such as the tablecloth under the cheese. He also enlarged the back of
the father’s head. Most significantly for the iconography of the painting, Steeninitially conceived the composition with yet another figure: a young man situated at
the back side of the table between the woman and her husband who looked up at a
crucifix hanging on the wall above the praying father. Although Steen never fully
worked up this figure and only blocked him in with a brush, the direction of his gazeis quite clear. The reflectogram, moreover, reveals that instead of one crucifix, as haslong been thought, Steen actually painted two crucifixes, one above the other, both ofwhich are visible in the reflectogram. The background figure would have been
looking at the lower of these two crucifixes. Even though the sequence of thesecompositional changes is not possible to determine, the preponderance of evidence isthat Steen opted to remove the explicit Catholic tenor of the scene to make it more
acceptable to a Protestant buyer.
Aside from the careful thought process underlying these compositional andiconographic changes, the forcefulness of Steen’s image results from the surety of his© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 4 of 11

painting technique in this work. Rarely did he convey weight and texture so intently.
He carefully modeled his figures with light and shade, endowing them with classicalgrandeur. He meticulously rendered the woven pattern of the frayed cloth over thebarrel, and the crisp folds in the clean white table cloth under the bread and cheese.
Finally, he convincingly suggested the worn appearance of the father’s chair and therough wood of the window frame.
Steen’s compositional focus on a few figures in a corner before an open window isunusual within his oeuvre, and may reflect his awareness of Delft artistic traditions.
By 1660 both Johannes Vermeer (1632–75) and Pieter de Hooch (1629–84) placed
their scenes of domestic life in similar settings. Steen, however, stands apart from his
Delft colleagues in the way that he exploits this setting. The small vista through theopen window suggests at once the family’s bond to the community and the privacy ofits devotions. Moreover, the opening is wide enough for air and light to enter freely
into the room, heightening the sense of realism. Finally, Steen effectively uses thesimple architecture of the room, particularly the open window framing the mother, toenhance the solemnity and dignity of this quiet masterpiece.[14]- Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 5 of 11

Endnotes
1. This text is based on the entry on the painting by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. 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), 139–41.
2. Translation adapted from Peter C. Sutton, Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting (Exh.
cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen; London, Royal Academyof Arts) (Philadelphia, 1984), 307. The Dutch text on the placard reads: “Drie dingen wensch ick en niet
meer / woor al te minnen Godt den heer / geen overvloet van Ryckdoms schat / maer wens om tgeen dewyste badt / Een eerlyck Leven op dit dal / in dese drie bestaet het al.”
3. Peter Hecht, “The Debate on Symbol and Meaning in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Art: An Appeal to
Common Sense,” Simiolus (1986): 177, n. 15, notes that the saying “in den hoed kijken” (“to look in thehat”) is an expression indicating silent prayer. I would like to thank Guido Jansen for this reference.
4. See, for example, Roemer Visscher, Sinnepoppen (Amsterdam, 1614), emblem 66, “‘T Vertroude
trouwelijck,” which equates trustworthiness with a key. The key also has religious associations that
relate thematically to the tenor of this work. Christ said to Saint Peter: “And I will give unto thee thekeys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”(Matthew 16:19).
5. The vanitas connotations of the book are less certain than those of the extinguished candle and skull. It
could be a Bible. Nevertheless, many vanitas still lifes with extinguished candles and skulls include
books as well.
6. For the symbolism of wheat, see Ingvar Bergström, Still Lifes of the Golden Age: Northern European
Paintings from the Heinz Family Collection, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) (Washington D.C., 1989), 103–4.
7. For a full listing of other paintings by Steen representing this subject, see Peter C. Sutton, “The Life andArt of Jan Steen,” in “Jan Steen: Comedy and Admonition,” Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 78(Winter/Spring, 1982–83), 29–31, particularly nn. 7 and 10.
8. See, in particular, Jacob Cats, Houwelyck: Dat is de gansche gelegentheyt des echten-staets (Middelburg,
1625). For the relationship between Cats’s writings and such scenes, see Wayne Franits, “The Family
Saying Grace: A Theme in Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century,” Simiolus 16 (1986): 36–49; andidem, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art (Cambridge, 1993),
131–60.
9. See Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de nederlandse kunst van dezeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 292–310.
10. See Pieter J. J. van Thiel, “Poor Parents, Rich Children and Family Saying Grace: Two Related Aspectsof the Iconography of Late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Domestic Morality,” Simiolus 17© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 6 of 11(1987): 128–49.
11. Wayne Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art(Cambridge, 1993), 82, notes that Petrus Baardt, Deugden-spoor (Leeuwarden, 1645), 373, associates
the fruitful vine with a “een deugdelijcke huys-vrouwe van eerbaer Zeden” (virtuous and chaste wife).
12. Peter C. Sutton, Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting (Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museumof Art; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen; London, Royal Academy of Arts) (Philadelphia,
1984), 308.
13. The infrared reflectogram also reveals a number of fingerprints in the wet paint along the painting’s
upper edge.
14. Wybrand Hendriks made a drawing after this painting in the late eighteenth century (nowRijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam). The painting was then probably in the collection of Johannes
Enschede, Haarlem.

Provenance
Johannes Enschede, Haarlem (his sale, Haarlem, Tako Jelgersma and Vincent Van der Vinne, 30 May
1786, no. 22 [for 175 florins]).
(Anonymous sale, Alkmaar, H. Hartemink and J. P. Van Horstok, 17 November 1788, no. 1 [to Du Tourfor 700 florins]).
Ocke, Leiden (his sale, Leiden, 21 April 1817, no. 128 [to Ocke for 440 florins]; sale, E. Michael
Engelberts, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, Roos and De Vries, 25 August 1817, no. 91 [to De Vries for
275 florins]).
E. E. Baron Collot d’Escury, Leeuwarden (his sale, Leeuwarden, J. Proost, 17 October 1831, no. 33 [toBerg for 395 florins]); Mr. Chaplin, London, by 1831.
James Morrison (1790–1857), Basildon Park, London, by 1848; by descent to his widow, Mary Anne
Morrison (d. 1887); by descent to their son, Charles Morrison (d. 1909), by 1894; by inheritance toJames Morrison’s brother, Walter Morrison, Basildon Park; by inheritance to his nephew, Colonel James
Archibald Morrison (1873–1934), Basildon Park, by 1910; by inheritance to his daughter, Mary
Morrison, by 1934, who married John Henry Dent-Brocklehurst of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe,
Gloucestershire in 1924; by inheritance to Geoffrey Mark Dent-Brocklehurst, Sudeley Castle (sale,
Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2012, no. 9 [Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2012.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 7 of 11

Exhibition History
London, British Institution, 1848 [lent by James Morrison].
London, Royal Academy, “Winter Exhibition,” 1879, no. 54 [lent by Mrs. Morrison].
London, Royal Academy, “Winter Exhibition,” 1894, no. 58 [lent by Charles Morrison].
London, Royal Academy, “Winter Exhibition,” 1907, no. 73 [lent by Charles Morrison].
London, Grosvenor Gallery, 1914–18, no. 18 .
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, “Winter Exhibition,” 1936–37, no. 61 [lent by Simon Morrison].
London, Royal Academy (Gallery IX), “Exhibition of 17th-Century Art in Europe,” 3 January – 12
March 1938, no. 268 [lent by Simon Morrison].
London, Royal Academy of Arts, “Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting,” 7
September–18 November 1984, no. 102 [lent by The Walter Morrison Collection, Sudeley Castle,
Gloucestershire].
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, “Jan Steen, Painter and Storyteller,” 28 April–18 August
1996; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 21 September–12 January 1997, no. 13 [lent by the Sudeley Castle
Trustees, Gloucestershire, Walter Morrison Collection].
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, June 2013–June 2016
[lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February–22 May 2017 [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 [lent by the present
owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
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 the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the present
owner].

References© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 8 of 11

Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonnè of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French
Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 4: 62–63, no. 185.
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collectionsof Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., etc. Translated by Elizabeth Eastlake. 3 vols.
London 1854–57, 2: 262; suppl., 108.
Van Westrheene, Tobias. Jan Steen; Étude sur l’Art en Hollande. The Hague, 1856, 162, no. 380.
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 translated by Edward G. Hawke, 1:99-100, 104, nos. 375, 397b. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und
kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10
vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions. 5 vols. London, 1914, 1256, 1258–59.
Bredius, Abraham. Jan Steen. Met honderd platen bevattende 101 afbeeldingen in photogravure van zijne
beste werken. Amsterdam, 1927, 61–62.
Martin, Wilhelm. De Hollandische schilderkunst in de zeventiende eeuw. Rembrandt en zijn tijd. 2 vols.
Amsterdam, 1935–36, 2: 264.
Waterhouse, Ellis Kirkham, ed. Catalogue of the Exhibition of 17th Century Art in Europe. Exh. cat.
London. London, 1938, 110, no. 268.
An Illustrated Souvenir of The Exhibition of 17th Century Art in Europe. London, 1938, 63, no. 268.
De Groot, Cornelis Wilhelmus. Jan Steen. Beeld en Woord. Utrecht and Nijmegen, 1952, 61–62.
MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues. The Dutch School 1600-1900. 2 vols. London, 1960,
400, under no. 2558.
De Vries, Lyckle. De schilderende Uilenspiegel. Amsterdam, 1976, 10–11, 57, no. 25.
De Vries, Lyckle. “Jan Steen ‘de kluchtschilder.’” PhD diss. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1977, 46, 48,
49–50, 129, note 161, no. 90x.
Braun, Karel. Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen. Rotterdam, 1980, 100, no. 115.
Sutton, Peter C. “The Life and Art of Jan Steen.” In Jan Steen: Comedy and Admonition. Philadelphia
Museum of Art Bulletin (Winter/Spring 1982–83): 29, no. 27.
Brown, Christopher. Scenes of Everyday Life. Dutch Genre Painting of the Seventeenth Century. London,
1984, 150–51.
Sutton, Peter C. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Exh. cat. Philadelphia,
Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1984, 307–08, no. 102, pl. 78.
Schama, Simon. The Embarassment of Riches. London, 1987, 47, no. 19.
MacLaren, Neil, and Christopher Brown. National Gallery Catalogues. The Dutch School 1600-1900. 2
vols. London, 1991, 1: 427, under no. 2558.
Chapman, H. Perry, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Wouter Kloek, ed. Jan Steen Painter and Storyteller.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 9 of 11

Exh. cat. Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. New Haven, 1996,
139–41, no. 13, 190.
Van den Brink, Peter, and Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann. Cornelis Bega. Eleganz und raue Sitten. Exh. cat.
Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Aachen, 2012, 215.
Surh, Dominique. “Prayer Before the Meal.” In Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of
Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 72, no. 26. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre
Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt,
10–1; 15 fig. 8. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017. A
slightly revised version of this essay appears in Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai,
2017, 35, fig. 8.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Prayer Before the Meal.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces of The
Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 132–33; 185, no. 56. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat.
Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 164–65.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria
Babich and Daria Kuzina, 25; 33. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Prayer Before the Meal.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 188–89; 244, no. 61. Translated by Daria Babichand Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State
Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Eekhout, Marianne. Werk, bid & bewonder: Een nieuwe kijk op kunst en calvinisme. Exh. cat. Dordrecht,
Dordrechts Museum. Dordrecht, 2018, 71, illustrated.
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 158–59, no. 78. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Bishop, Brian Leslie. The Beauty of Holiness: Giotto’s Passion Frescoes as a Prelude to the Artistic AfterLife of the Supper at Emmaus. Eugene, 2020, 157–58, fig. 49.
Downs, Katie. “Cinderella! Cinderella!: A Closer Look into Dutch Seventeenth-Century Gender Roles
and Genre Paintings.” Visual Inquiry: Learning and Teaching Art vol. 9 no. 3 (December 2020): 125–26,
fig. 1.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 10 of 11

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Wybrand Hendriks, Prayer Before the Meal, 1786, watercolor, pen in gray, on paper, 38 x 31.8 cm,
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-T-FM-57.

Technical Summary
The support is a rectangular composite panel comprising three vertically grained oak planks—a wide centerplank between two narrow planks.[1] The panel has bevels along the upper and lower edges. A brown coating
applied to the entire panel reverse has inclusions and a gritty texture along the right plank. Machine tool
marks along the lower right corner may be present along the entire panel and be obscured by the brown
coating. The panel has four old paper labels, one new self-adhesive label, a white chalk and a pencil
inscription, but no paper tape, wood shims, wax collection seals, stencils or panel maker’s mark visible along
the reverse. The panel has not been previously prepared for dendrochronology.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied and spills over onto the thickness of the left andright edges. The paint has been applied broadly wet-into-wet with refinements as the composition progressed.
The contours of the foliage draped over the hanging wood chandelier, the mother’s headscarf, and the child’s
blue garment have been applied with low rounded brushwork. The simple fabric draped over the barrel has
been rendered with short delicate strokes.
A dark fingerprint, presumably the artist’s, is located along the light gray wall near the nape of the father’sneck. Infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers reveal additional fingerprints along the center of theupper edge.
A sketchy line underdrawing is revealed along the pitcher on the bench, the window frame, and leaded
window in infrared images captured at 1100–1800 nanometers.[2] The images also reveal one significant anda number of minor compositional changes during the paint stage. A male figure previously stood between theseated figures, looking off toward the viewer’s right, with his head tilted slightly. The position of the figure’s
head and shoulders are located along the lower left quadrant of the wall placard, where the signature and dateare in the final composition. The bell hanging in the center of the wood chandelier has been reduced in size.
A large cross was previously located along the upper right quadrant has been replaced by a wood shelf
holding an extinguished candle, a book, which may be a bible, and a skull with the corner of a piece of paper
hanging over it. A rectangular shape to the right of the key hanging on the wall has been painted out
completely. The left half of the upper horizontal edge of the placard appears to have been raised slightly. A
dark, horizontally oriented pentimento is located along the left side of the wheel of cheese below the breadon the table, and the angle of the table and white tablecloth facing the mother and child has been madesteeper. The wood bands around the middle of the barrel have been raised. In addition, a chimney has been
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Prayer Before the Meal
Page 11 of 11

added to the sloped roofline of the house seen through the open window.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint on the last line of the large placard hung from a nail on the rearwall, where a male figure previously stood.
The painting was varnished but has not undergone conservation treatment since acquisition and remains in an
excellent state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only.
2. Infrared imaging and X-radiography conducted in June 2013 by Douglas Lachance, painting
conservation technician, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Infrared image capture, J and H
filters configured from 1.1–1.8 microns, Santa Barbara Focal Plane ImagIR LC InSb camera. Infrared
reflectogram composite, Adobe Photoshop assembly.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection