The Sense of Hearing
Jan Steen (Leyden 1626 – Leyden 1679)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1646 - 1679
Materials
Oil on panel (oak)
Measurements
254 x 216 mm (10 x 8 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Holland
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446736
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Sense of Hearing, Jan Steen (Leyden 1626 – Leyden 1679), signed J. Steen (JS in mongram). A seated peasant wearing a jerkin over a red blouse with grey breeches and scarlet hat is singing from a music score which he holds in his left hand, while his right is raised beating time; on the table by his side is a flagon, and two musical instruments hang on the wall behind.
Provenance
According to Hofstede de Groot the set of Five Senses appeared in an anonymous sale at Amsterdam in 1695 and was then in Borwater and van Breemen sales.(Hoet, 1752-70 confirms this): Anon. sale, Amsterdam 6 April 1695, lot 12 (Hoet, vol. I, p. 22); A. Borwater sale, The Hague, 20 July 1756, lot 79 (Hoet, vol. III, p. 156); N. van Breeman sale, The Hague, 3 April 1769 (no lot number);(Hoet, vol. II, p. 484, 'five paintings of the five senses by David Teniers); Four of the series (no Sense of Touch) and described as having belonged to Prince Leopold and sold at 'Boyle Farm Sale' (see label on back of UPT.P. 131 & 134) were sold by A. T. Ross, Sotheby's, 3rd November 1926, lot 107; Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1928;[...];given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948, shortly before his death
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: J. Steen (JS in monogram, signed) Recto: numbered 243 in paint in the right bottom corner
Makers and roles
Jan Steen (Leyden 1626 – Leyden 1679), artist
Exhibition history
The Bearsted Collection, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1955, no.30
References
Westrheene, 1856: J. van Westrheene, Jan Steen, The Hague, 1856, p.156, no. 437 Hofstede de Groot 1907-28: C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 8 vols., London 1907-28, Vol. 1, nos. 104-8