Fine Art Poster
From £28
A giclée print on 200gsm matte fine art paper, using a twelve-colour process for accurate, fade-resistant colour. Supplied unframed, delivered flat or rolled.
The Way You Hear It - Jan Steen
Regular price
£28.00 GBP
Sale price
£28.00 GBP
Regular price
Archival giclée
Frames arrive ready to hang
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Made to order
Description
A classic Dutch Golden Age genre painting by Jan Steen, depicting a multi-generational household scene that illustrates the proverb: As the old sing, so the young pipe.
Jan Steen, a master of the Dutch Golden Age, produced this work around 1665. The title refers to a popular Dutch proverb: 'As the old sing, so the young pipe.' This painting depicts a multi-generational household engaged in a scene of domestic revelry. Steen frequently used such scenes to comment on moral behaviour, family dynamics, and the transmission of habits from parents to children.
The composition is crowded with figures, each contributing to the chaotic atmosphere. An elderly man plays the bagpipes while a child mimics him with a smaller instrument, illustrating the proverb directly. A woman pours wine for a young child, a detail that would have been interpreted by contemporary viewers as a critique of poor parenting and lack of discipline. The presence of a parrot, a dog, and various household objects adds to the narrative density of the interior space.
Steen employs a warm, earthy palette, typical of his interior scenes. The lighting is focused on the central group, drawing the eye to the interaction between the adults and the children. His brushwork is precise, capturing the textures of the velvet garments, the reflective surface of the glassware, and the rougher surfaces of the wooden furniture. The scene is not merely a depiction of a family gathering, but a calculated observation of human folly. Steen was known for his ability to balance technical skill with a sense of humour, often placing himself or his family members within these staged domestic dramas. This work remains a primary example of his ability to weave complex social commentary into the fabric of everyday life, using the home as a stage for wider societal critique.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Complete The Look
The Way You Hear It - Jan Steen
Regular price
From £28.00 GBP
Sale price
From £28.00 GBP
Regular price
Fine Art Poster / A4 (21x29.7 cm) / -
Artist Biography
Jan Steen
Steen ran a brewery and a tavern, painted roughly eight hundred pictures, fathered eight children and died in debt. The Dutch phrase "a Jan Steen household" still describes a home in cheerful disarray, which is exactly what his paintings depict: noisy domestic scenes of feasts, drinking parties, quack doctors and misbehaving children, painted with moral commentary buried under layers of visual comedy.
He was born in Leiden around 1626 into a well-to-do Catholic family of brewers who ran the tavern The Red Halbert. In 1648 he and Gabriel Metsu co-founded the painters' Guild of Saint Luke in Leiden. He studied under Jan van Goyen, the landscape painter, and married Van Goyen's daughter Margriet in 1649. His father leased him a brewery in Delft from 1654 to 1657; when the art market collapsed in the Year of Disaster (1672), he opened a tavern in Leiden.
His painting drew heavily on the Rhetoricians, the amateur theatrical guilds whose public performances combined moralising with bawdy comedy. Steen treated his own family as a cast: he used relatives as models and painted himself repeatedly with no trace of vanity, often as the fool or the drunk. The Feast of Saint Nicholas and Girl Eating Oysters are among his most recognisable images, each balancing precise observation of Dutch domestic life with a theatrical sense of timing.
Despite enormous productivity he struggled financially throughout his career. His second wife was left with heavy debts and a large family after his death in Leiden in 1679, at fifty-two. Collectors valued him from early on, but the prices came after his lifetime.
He was born in Leiden around 1626 into a well-to-do Catholic family of brewers who ran the tavern The Red Halbert. In 1648 he and Gabriel Metsu co-founded the painters' Guild of Saint Luke in Leiden. He studied under Jan van Goyen, the landscape painter, and married Van Goyen's daughter Margriet in 1649. His father leased him a brewery in Delft from 1654 to 1657; when the art market collapsed in the Year of Disaster (1672), he opened a tavern in Leiden.
His painting drew heavily on the Rhetoricians, the amateur theatrical guilds whose public performances combined moralising with bawdy comedy. Steen treated his own family as a cast: he used relatives as models and painted himself repeatedly with no trace of vanity, often as the fool or the drunk. The Feast of Saint Nicholas and Girl Eating Oysters are among his most recognisable images, each balancing precise observation of Dutch domestic life with a theatrical sense of timing.
Despite enormous productivity he struggled financially throughout his career. His second wife was left with heavy debts and a large family after his death in Leiden in 1679, at fifty-two. Collectors valued him from early on, but the prices came after his lifetime.
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Fine Art Framed
From £45
The same fine art print in a solid wood frame with UV-protective acrylic glaze and rigid backing. Five frame colours. Arrives ready to hang.
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