(Leiden 1626–1679)
A tavern interior
signed at the center of the upper area: JSteen (ligated)
oil on panel, 38.8 x 55.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
Sanitätsrat Dr. Ernst Hölscher (1837–1915) collection, Mühlheim am Rhein;
Dr. Johannes Hölscher-Stumpf (1862–1936) collection, Berlin;
his sale, Rudolf Lepke, Berlin, 7th May 1918, lot 30;
with Galerie Dr. Schäffer, Berlin (1929);
with Galerie Dr. Benedict & Co., Berlin (1930);
with Galerie Internationale, The Hague (1930);
Private collection, Netherlands

Literature:
C. Hofstede de Groot, vol. I, 1907, no. 821D (see Hofstede de Groot’s annotated copy at the RKD, The Hague);
M. G. Zimmermann, Niederländische Bilder des 17. Jahrhunderts in der Sammlung Hölscher-Stumpf, Kunstwissenschaftliche Studien, part 2, Leipzig, 1908, plate VIII;
K. Braun, Alle tot nue toe bekende Schilderijen van Jan Stehen, Rotterdam, 1980, no. B-243

Exhibited:
Galerie Dr. Schäffer, Berlin, Die Meister des holländischen Interieurs, April – May 1929, no. 88;
Kunstmuseum Basel, Meisterwerke holländischer Malerei des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, 1945, no. 94

We are grateful to Wouter Kloek and Fred Meijer, who have independently confirmed the attribution of the present painting. Meijer assigns it to the years between 1650 and 1653; Kloek dates it to a slightly later period of between 1653 and 1655. He associates it with Steen’s more mature works rather than with the artist’s paintings from the early 1650s. Kloek argues that our composition’s still-life-like elements are not yet present in Steen’s earlier works. The present painting is an example of the beginning of the development of a motif Steen would later also use for other paintings (compare the paintings in the National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG5637, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-3347).