Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller [Hardcover]

H. Perry Chapman (Author), Wouter Th. Kloek (Author), Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 1996

Examining the full repertoire of the Dutch painter Jan Steen, including portraits and self-portraits, religious and mythological scenes, and witty narratives, this work reassesses Steen within the context of 17th-century Netherlandish artistic, literary and cultural movements. The book serves as the catalogue for an exhibition of the works of Jan Steen, opening at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, on 28 April 1996, and travelling in September 1996 to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While the extroverted comic vitality that marks the painting of Jan Steen will not engender the hymnal praise evoked by the National Gallery's recent exhibition of Jan Vermeer's art, this important catalog proffers another splendid yet very different vision of Dutch Catholic pictorial genius in the 17th century. The volume's several prefatory scholarly essays provide an intellectual context for an appreciation of the character and content of Steen's work. The more traditional essays offer a documentary reconstruction of the artist's life, stylistic development, and working methods, while others more provocatively attempt to offer deeper insight into the artist's persona, the problems of interpreting the paintings, and their relationship to a literary and social milieu. This handsomely illustrated exhibition catalog (the show is also at the National Gallery) includes not only fine color illustrations of the 49 exhibited paintings but also much comparative visual material. Making minimal reference to the essays, an ample text fittingly describes the individual paintings and suggests their likely meanings, sources, and relationships to a larger artistic ambience. An important addition to academic art history collections.?Robert Cahn, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: National Gallery Washington; 1st Ed. edition (May 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300067933
• ISBN-13: 978-0300067934
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction, November 30, 2005

By 

Word Smythe (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller (Hardcover)

This painter was an amazing combination of excellent artist, sarcastic and humorous person, and historian -- he painted what he saw - and each tells a story. This book helps guide you through it and points out things in his paintings that I would have missed.