Jan Miense Molenaer

Jan Miense Molenaer was a Dutch Golden Age genre painter whose style was a precursor to Jan Steen's work during Dutch Golden Age painting. He shared a studio with his wife, Judith Leyster, also a genre painter, as well as a portraitist and painter of still-life. Both Molenaer and Leyster may have been pupils of Frans Hals.

Biography

Molenaer was born and died in Haarlem.
He achieved a style close to Hals' early on in his career, but later developed a style like that of Dutch genre painter, Adriaen van Ostade. His genre works often depicted players of music, such as his The Music Makers, The Duet, or Family Making Music. He also depicted Taverns and the activities of card games or games of the times such as La main chaude, or in Dutch, , which literally means clapping hands. Molenaer also cleverly depicted biblical stories in his own time and surroundings, such as representing a scene from Peter's Gospel set in a Dutch Tavern in The Denying of Peter.

Selected works

1629 – The Dentist, Oil on panel,
1629 – Two Boys and a Girl Making Music, Oil on canvas,
1630 – A Quack and His Assistant, Oil on canvas,
1630 – The Duet, Oil on canvas,
1630/32 – A Young Man playing a Theorbo and a Young Woman playing a Cittern, Oil on canvas,
1631 – Painter in His Studio, Painting a Musical Company, Oil on canvas,
1633 – Allegory of Vanity, Oil on canvas,
1633 – Allegory of Marital Fidelity, Oil on canvas,
1633/35 – Battle Between Carnival and Lent, Oil on wood,
1635 – Card Players, Oil on panel,
1635 – Young Smoker, Oil on panel,
1635 – Family Making Music, Oil on panel,
1636 – The Denying of Peter, Oil on canvas,
1640s – Woman Holding a Jug, Oil on panel,