As the Old Sing, So the Young Pipe

Jan Steen painted As the Old Sing, So the Young Pipe around 1663, during his time in Haarlem. It is one of his most complex moral genre scenes. A family gathers in a well-furnished room for a celebration. The father sits at the table, singing from a songbook, a glass of wine in his hand. The mother sits beside him, holding a sheet of music. Around them, children of various ages are smoking pipes, drinking, and joining in the singing. A dog sits on the floor, looking up at the group. On the wall behind, a painting of a hermit hangs as a silent moral commentary. The canvas is roughly 52 by 42 inches. The title comes from a Dutch proverb: "As the old sing, so the young pipe." Children learn by imitating their parents. The painting shows parents singing and drinking, and their children doing the same. The moral message would have been clear to Steen's contemporaries: the parents are setting a bad example, and the children are following it. The hermit in the background painting represents the contemplative life, a contrast to the worldly festivities. Steen painted several versions of this subject. This version, in the Rijksmuseum, is one of the largest and most detailed. The composition is complex, with ten figures arranged around the table, each one engaged in a different activity but all connected by the shared moment. The painting is both a celebration of family life and a warning about the consequences of bad parenting. Steen was born in Leiden in 1626 and worked in various Dutch cities. He ran a tavern for much of his career and painted scenes of domestic chaos with the authority of someone who had seen plenty of it. His paintings are always narrative, always comic, and always grounded in the material reality of Dutch life. Oil on canvas, 133 by 162 centimeters. Steen used a warm palette with strong reds and yellows. The brushwork is loose and confident, especially in the clothing and the food on the table. This painting works well in a dining room, living room, or family room. The 18x24 framed version in a red oak frame complements the warm palette. The painting is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. This is a public domain artwork, sourced from Wikimedia Commons. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 24x36 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.