Prayer before a meal

Described by the great Dutch connoisseur Abraham Bredius as ‘a magnificent work’, this Prayer before a Meal is one of the least well known of Jan Steen’s interpretations of his most pious subject. At least four other treatments are known, all compositionally different, including those in the Leiden Collection (formerly Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 1012, lot 9, £5,641,250); the collection of the Duke of Rutland, Belvoir Castle; the John G. Johnson collection, Philadelphia; and the National Gallery, London–all of which date to the 1660s. The superlative quality of those versions (the first two in particular) gives an indication of the importance that Steen, himself a Catholic, attached to the subject. This picture, having remained out of the public eye in the same collection since 1964, was inexplicably rejected by Karel Braun in his 1980 monograph (op. cit.) and can only now be reconsidered properly in the context of these other versions. Both Guido Jansen and Wouter Kloek for endorsed the attribution on the basis of photographs at the time of the 2018 sale (see Provenance). Both independently proposed a date in the late 1650s, making this possibly Steen’s earliest painting of the subject.

The didactic intent behind all these works was underlined in the Belvoir and Leiden pictures with the inclusion of inscriptions of verses from the Bible or the Lord’s Prayer, expounding the virtues of a simple, honest life, underpinned by humility and a love of God. The message is no less hard-hitting in this example despite the absence of any text. In a humble yet well-ordered interior, lit from the outside window, a mother is shown praying next to her infant daughter, the latter imitating the gesture of the former, whilst the son stands clasping his hands together gazing up towards the light in an act of devotion. The father is shown hunched at the table respectfully holding his cap, a key hanging on the wall behind him emblematic of his trustworthiness. His place in the composition is balanced on the right by the newest addition to the family–a baby shown asleep in a wicker crib, which is described in admirable detail in half-light falling from the open window. Steen has taken characteristic care throughout to describe the unadorned setting as a functioning domestic interior. Various culinary implements are shown on shelves, in an open cupboard or hanging on the wall, while the simple meal itself consisting of root vegetables, bread and cheese is meticulously rendered on the crisp white tablecloth which has recently been unfolded. This truthfulness serves to enhance the effect of restrained piety and of a family living modestly and with dignity.