The life of Jan Steen

400 years ago, in 1626, Jan Steen was born in Leiden. I came across this remarkable painter three times in the stamp catalogue. Although the name Steen does not refer to the Stone Age, his name does have something to do with 'stones'. Summer Stamps 1940 The summer stamps were issued for the first time in 1935. Each year, a series was released with a surcharge for Social and Cultural work. In the first few years, these summer stamps consisted of a portrait gallery of famous Dutch people. This was also the case in 1940. What I find remarkable is that Jan Steen is included twice in this series. A green example with a face value of 5 cents and a red example with a face value of 5 cents on the original stamp (also), but with an overprint of 7,5 cents. What could have been the reason for this overprint? A mistake to print a 5-cent stamp twice? Or was there also a demand for a 7,5-cent stamp, and was this resolved in this way? I suspect that the designer of this Jan Steen stamp used a self-portrait by Jan Steen from 1670. Only the arm is different. This painting hangs in the Rijksmuseum. 300th anniversary of Jan Steen's death. Jan Steen died in 1679 and was buried in the St. Peter's Church in Leiden. A beautiful church, not far from the street where Jan Steen lived in Leiden.

His death was commemorated 300 years later, in 1979, with a postage stamp. On this stamp, we see a cheerful Jan Steen. That is certainly characteristic of him. We encounter cheerful scenes in many of his paintings. One also frequently sees a small Kooikerhondje depicted in them.               In the painting above, we see a famous scene: 'The Household of Jan Steen'. 1999: 17th-Century Dutch Painting And in 1999, a stamp featuring Jan Steen was issued in a sheet with ten Dutch painters from the 17th century. On it, we see the painting by Jan Steen titled 'In Weelde siet toe'. This painting can be seen in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Jan Steen's father-in-law Jan Steen's father-in-law was the painter Jan van Goyen. Jan also received lessons from him. Van Goyen himself became famous for his landscape paintings, as we see in this painting, which hangs in a museum in Schwerin.

The name Jan Steen At his birth in Leiden, Jan Steen was still named Jan Havickszoon, after his father Havick. The addition of 'Steen' was added only later. How did that happen? Leiden was expanding rapidly at that time, and there were increasingly more Janns whose fathers were named Havick. This became confusing with all those Jan Havickszonen. To create clarity, an addition was necessary. Jan Havickszoon lived near the Steenschuur. It is very likely that Jan's addition of Jan (Havickszoon) Steen comes from there. Stone Barn Leiden The Steenschuur is one of the oldest canals in Leiden, dug in the 13th century as the first defensive moat. The Steenschuur is presumably named after a barn where stones were stored for the construction of the Gravensteen. Stones were very expensive at the time. It even happened that judges imposed a fine of a stone for an infraction. With that money, a stone was then bought and used for construction. That is where the expression 'to contribute a stone' comes from. In those days, people lived in wooden houses. If you already had a stone house, you were 'stone rich'. If you did not have money for a wooden house, you lived on the street and were therefore 'street poor'. 'Steenrijk en straatarm' (Rich and Street Poor) is now a successful TV series.