Jan Miense Molenaer

Jan Miense Molenaer painted the noisy, cheerful side of Dutch life: musicians, card players, tavern scenes, children’s games and village festivities. His lively groups of figures and warm humour make him a forerunner of Jan Steen.

He was born and died in Haarlem. His early work follows the loose, energetic manner of Frans Hals, and later he moved closer to the peasant scenes of Adriaen van Ostade. In 1636 he married the painter Judith Leyster, and the two shared a studio. He sometimes set biblical stories in everyday Dutch surroundings. His work is in museums across Europe and North America, including the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

A Quack and His Assistant and Drinking Peasants show his eye for comic types, while Allegory of Vanity reminds viewers, in Dutch fashion, that such pleasures do not last.