The Children’s Meal c. 1665

Jan Steen created this painting of a family scene in the Dutch Golden Age. It's easy to read this as just a genre scene of family life, but it is also a glimpse into the roles and expectations thrust upon women and children in 17th-century Netherlands. Consider the young girl, perhaps no more than ten, burdened with the task of preparing a meal amidst the chaos. Is this simply a charming snapshot of domesticity, or does it reveal a deeper narrative about the unpaid labor of women, the loss of childhood, and the gendered division of work? Steen's work often dances on this knife's edge, between humor and social critique. Steen himself ran his father's tavern, so he was no doubt familiar with such scenes. Through his art, we witness not only the surface of everyday life but also the underlying tensions and power dynamics that shape it. Can we, too, find ourselves reflected in the mundane, messy, and profoundly human world he captured?