GRACE BEFORE MEAT
By JAN STEEN


GRACE BEFORE MEAT
By JAN STEEN (l626?-1679)
IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

The love of art among the English has found striking expression from time to time in a rescue from oblivion of the fame of some great artist whose masterpieces had long been unrecognised. Foreign observers have paid tribute to the discernment of English buyers who bought Steen's pictures in such numbers that the greater part of them (at least two-thirds) found their way to this country. To some extent this is accounted for by his boisterous humour, which found an echoing response in the English temperament. Sir Joshua Reynolds was so captivated with his work that he declared that "Steen's style might become even the design of a Rafaelle," while C. R. Leslie, R.A., described him as " the greatest genius of the Dutch painters of familiar life." Though at times he falls short of his highest standard, in his best work he excels the whole Dutch School in his originality, while he yields place to none in his technical mastery and his colouring.

Much of Steen's life is wrapped in obscurity, but it seems certain that after living in Leyden, his birthplace, from 1648 to 1658, he proceeded to Delft, where he set up a brewery. The venture was not successful. and he went on to Haarlem, where he joined the Painters' Guild, in 1661. Like some of our English painters he combined a genius for painting with jovial habits which were not marked by moderation. In spite of this he produced a large number of pictures, showing incidents of the everyday life with which he was acquainted. His general note is one of humour, and it is but rarely that he discards it for the quiet harmony of domestic scenes which gives an added interest to such pictures as " Grace Before Meat".

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"









Jan Steen Paintings
at Olga's Gallery

Jan Steen Biography
at Olga's Gallery

Jan Steen
at Wikipedia

Jan Steen Genre Paintings
at Web Gallery of Art (2 pages)

Steen Paintings
at Wikipedia


Famous Paintings in this Series





James Archer
My Great Grandmother


Bashkirtseff
The Meeting


Bouguereau
Charity


John Brett
From the Dorsetshire Cliffs


Arnesby Brown
The River Bank


Joseph Clark
Mother's Darling


John Constable
The Hay-Wain


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
The Fisherman's Hut


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
A Flood


Leonardo Da Vinci
Monna Lisa


Edouard Detaille
The Dream


Henri Fantin-Latour
Flowers


Thomas Gainsborough
Queen Charlotte


Thomas Gainsborough
The Market Cart


Jean Baptiste Greuze
The Head of a Girl


Jean Baptiste Greuze
Fidelity


James Clark Hook
Home With the Tide


Alfred William Hunt
Windsor Castle


Josef Israels
The Shipwrecked Mariner


B.W. Leader
The Stream in Summer-time


Madame Vigee Le Brun
Portrait of the Artist

Alphonse Legros
A Canal With a Fisherman


Anton Mauve
Watering Horses


J.L.E. Meissonier
The Cavalier


Sir J.E. Millais
Speak! Speak!


Sir J.E. Mallais
My First Sermon


George Morland
The Reckoning


George Morland
The Inside of a Stable


Murillo
The Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin


Alfred Parsons
When Nature Painted
All Things Gay


Ralph Peacock
The Sisters


Rembrandt
Syndics of the
Cloth Merchants' Guild


Guido Reni
"Ecce Homo"


Sir Joshua Reynolds
Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare
With Her Infant Son


Briton Riviere
The Temptation
in the Wilderness


Dante Gabriel
Rossetti
Day Dreams


John Singer Sargent
Miss Ellen Terry
as Lady Macbeth


Lady Stanley
(Dorothy Tennant)
His First Offence


Jan Steen
Grace Before Meat


Marcus Stone
On the Road from
Waterloo to Paris


Constant Troyon
Watering Cattle


H.S. Tuke
"All Hands to the Pumps"


Velazquez
King Philip IV. of Spain


S.E. Waller
Sweethearts and Wives


Thomas Webster
The Smile

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 1
Art Gallery

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 2
Art Gallery

Index
Art Appreciation
Lessons