ACTOR:
“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”
NARRATOR:
The 17th-century Dutch artist Jan Steen was familiar with this biblical proverb about the evils of drink—he’s inscribed the first few words on the edge of the awning over the door at the right, and he sets out to illustrate them with characteristic good humor.
Smirking villagers load a woman who’s passed out into a wheelbarrow. Her low-cut dress and red stockings mark her as a prostitute, implying that drunkenness leads to a degraded life. Next to her, a boy holds a glass vial and a pail, further emphasizing her over-indulgence. Behind him, an elderly couple leans out the window, apparently poised to complete the woman’s humiliation by emptying a chamber pot on her head. Just visible on the far left, we glimpse her moral opposite, a dutiful housewife drawing water from a well.
Steen’s treatment of the drunken woman might seem harsh today, but his contemporaries would have found it comical. Dutch artists often depicted moralizing subjects, but Steen preferred to hand out advice in a light-hearted manner. There are several versions and copies of this painting, attesting to the popularity of the subject.
Still, alcoholism was a serious problem in the Dutch republic, and Steen made many paintings commenting on drunkenness and carousing. He could bring some first hand observations to his subject, for he owned a brewery—and was said to be his own best customer.
Wine is a Mocker
1663-64
Jan Steen (Dutch, c.1626-1679)
Not on View
The inscription above the door is from Proverbs 20:1, which reads: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” In front of an inn, a hopelessly inebriated young woman is being helped into a wheelbarrow. Although the woman’s low-cut dress and red stockings mark
her as a prostitute, her rich and exquisitely delineated clothing indicate a more privileged status. Jan Steen subtly conveys the message that not only are those of superior position as susceptible as the lowly to the sins of drink, but that their disgrace is perhaps more pitiable because of the distance they have fallen.
Details
- Artist Name: Jan Steen (Dutch, c.1626-1679)
- Title: Wine is a Mocker
- Date: 1663-64
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 34-3/8 x 41-1/4 in. (87.3 x 104.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1969.05.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Possibly Anonymous (sale, Amsterdam, 17 September 1727, no. 12).
Edward Solly (sale London, Foster & Sons, 31 May 1837, no. 68, sold 86.2 to);
Norbury[?].
Private collection, Twenthe, The Netherlands, 1938.
[Firma Daniël Katz, Dierden, by 25 June 1941, when it was seized during the German occupation of The Netherlands for Hitler’s Linz collection, recovered and returned 13 November 1947 to];
[Benjamin (b. 1891) and Nathan Katz (1893-ca. 1950, Paris].
Mad. K. L. et al sale, Paris, Charpentier, 30 Nov. 1954, lot 32;
K. L. Sander, Bloemendaal, 1957.
K. Gratma, Heemstede, 1961, (sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1965, no. 100, bought in by “Patch” for 14,000), sold through;
[Galerie Cramer, The Hague, by 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Edward Solly (sale London, Foster & Sons, 31 May 1837, no. 68, sold 86.2 to);
Norbury[?].
Private collection, Twenthe, The Netherlands, 1938.
[Firma Daniël Katz, Dierden, by 25 June 1941, when it was seized during the German occupation of The Netherlands for Hitler’s Linz collection, recovered and returned 13 November 1947 to];
[Benjamin (b. 1891) and Nathan Katz (1893-ca. 1950, Paris].
Mad. K. L. et al sale, Paris, Charpentier, 30 Nov. 1954, lot 32;
K. L. Sander, Bloemendaal, 1957.
K. Gratma, Heemstede, 1961, (sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1965, no. 100, bought in by “Patch” for 14,000), sold through;
[Galerie Cramer, The Hague, by 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Meesterwerken uit vier eeuwen, 1400-1800
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- Hoet, Gérard, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen,no. 12 p. 319
- Cramer Oude Kunst, Catalogue No. XV,no. 59
- Edwin Bujisen, Quentin Buvelot, Ariane van Suchtelen, Lea van ger Vinde, Milou Goverde, Genre Paintings in the Mauritshuis,2016, fig. 48d p. 270 ; p. 271 (ill.)
- Braun, Karel, Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen,no. 191 p. 112
- Meesterweken uit vier eeuwen, 1400-1800,no. 147, pl. 94 p. 36
- The Burlington Magazine,pl. XLII
- Ariane van Suchtelen et al, Jan Steen's Histories,2018, fig. 11 p. 62
- Chapman, H. Perry and Arthur K. Wheelock, et al., Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller,no. 38 pp. 222-224
- Haarlemsche meesters uit de eeuw van Frans Hals,no. 125
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