Document: Merry Company on a Terrace Jan Steen Dutch ca. 1670

Jan Steen's wonderful paintings of daily life have been used extensively in the creation of the New Amsterdam History Center's 3D models.   The crowded scenes give us a sense of life in the 17th Century.

Met Museum Summary: Steen made a specialty of self-deprecating depictions of his own unruly household. This painting centers on the inviting figure of his wife, who looks out at the viewer with an empty wineglass in her hand. Steen, his face flushed with drink and a comic hat on his head, sits at the far left; next to him, with a sausage in his cap, is Hans Worst, the same theatrical figure depicted by Hals in a nearby work. To this day in the Netherlands, “a household by Jan Steen” remains proverbial for disorder and domestic chaos.