page_title: Jan Steen
section_title: Theater
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Steen / Influences / Theater
context_page_description: Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour.
context_section_description: With his lavish and moralising style, it is logical that Steen would employ the stratagems from theater for his purposes. There is conclusive evidence that the characters in Steen's paintings are predominantly theatrical characters and not ones from reality.
  Steen's numerous paintings of a theme most commonly entitled The Doctor's Visit, such as the composition of 1665–70 in the Rijksmuseum, illustrate his theatrical approach. The story is simple: a doctor attending a young maiden discovers that she is not ill but is in fact pregnant with child. The doctor is a comical character who wears a biretta, a doublet and a small pleated ruff. In fact, he is dressed in the fashion of 1570, not 1670. In contrast, the girl wears what would be the height of fashion at the time of the painting, a Japanese-styled loose kimono robe. 
  This anachronism can be explained only one way: this is not a real doctor but an actor wearing a traditional theater costume. According to Gudlaugsson, “never would so unusual and so completely uncontemporary a costume occur as that of the doctors in [Steen's] work".
caption: Fantasy Interior with Jan Steen and the Family of Gerrit Schouten, 1663
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