Jan Miense Molenaer
Encyclopedia
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 the successful Dutch painter, Frans Hals
.
. His genre works often depicted players of music, such as his The Music Makers (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), The Duet (Seattle Art Museum
), or Family Making Music (Frans Hals Museum
). He also depicted Taverns and the activities of card games or games of the times such as La main chaude, or in Dutch, Handjeklap, 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 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
genre painter whose style was a precursor to Jan Steen's
Jan Steen
Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade.-Life:...
work during Dutch Golden Age painting
Dutch Golden Age painting
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history generally spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years War for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republic was the most prosperous nation in Europe, and led European trade,...
. He shared a studio with his wife, Judith Leyster
Judith Leyster
Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter. She was one of three significant women artists in Dutch Golden Age painting; the other two, Rachel Ruysch and Maria van Oosterwijk, were specialized painters of flower still-lifes, while Leyster painted genre works, a few portraits, and a...
, also a genre painter, as well as a portraitist and painter of still-life. Both Molenaer and Leyster may have been pupils of the successful Dutch painter, Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
.
Biography
Molenaer achieved a style close to Hals' early on in his career, but later developed a style like that of Dutch genre painter, Adriaen van OstadeAdriaen van Ostade
Adriaen van Ostade was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works.-Life:...
. His genre works often depicted players of music, such as his The Music Makers (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), The Duet (Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
), or Family Making Music (Frans Hals Museum
Frans Hals Museum
The Frans Hals Museum is a hofje and municipal museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1862 in the newly renovated former cloister located in the back of the Haarlem city hall known as the Prinsenhof...
). He also depicted Taverns and the activities of card games or games of the times such as La main chaude, or in Dutch, Handjeklap, 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
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel According to Peter , commonly called the Gospel of Peter, is one of the non-Canonical gospels which were rejected by the Church Fathers and the Catholic Church's synods of Carthage and Rome, which established the New Testament canon, as apocryphal...
set in a Dutch Tavern in The Denying of Peter (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)
Selected works
- 1629 - The Dentist, Oil on panel, (North Carolina Museum of ArtNorth Carolina Museum of ArtThe North Carolina Museum of Art is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring paintings and sculpture representing 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present. The museum features more than 40 galleries as well as more than a dozen works of art in its Museum Park...
, RaleighRaleigh, North CarolinaRaleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
)http://collection.ncartmuseum.org/collection11/view/objects/asitem/28/8/title-desc?t:state:flow=f817a3db-40bc-47aa-b9de-064245347411 - 1629 - Two Boys and a Girl Making Music, Oil on canvas, (National Gallery, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
)http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG5416 - 1630 - A Quack and His Assistant, Oil on canvas, (Private Collection)http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/molenaer/index.html
- 1630 - The Duet, Oil on canvas, (Seattle Art MuseumSeattle Art MuseumThe Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
, Seattle)http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/SAMcollection/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse¤trecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=Molenaer&quicksearch=Molenaer&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1 - 1630/32 - A Young Man playing a Theorbo and a Young Woman playing a Cittern, Oil on canvas, (National Gallery, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
)http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG1293 - 1631 - Painter in His Studio, Painting a Musical Company, Oil on canvas, (Staatliche Museen, BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
)http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/molenaer/index.html - 1633 - Allegory of Vanity, Oil on canvas, (Toledo Museum of ArtToledo Museum of ArtThe Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio, United States. The museum was founded by Toledo glassmaker Edward Drummond Libbey in 1901, and moved to its present location, a Greek revival building designed by Edward B....
, ToledoToledo, OhioToledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
)http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/molenaer/index.html - 1633 - Allegory of Marital Fidelity, Oil on canvas, (Virginia Museum of Fine ArtsVirginia Museum of Fine ArtsThe Virginia Museum of Fine arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States, which opened in 1936.The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, while private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the support of specific programs and all...
, RichmondRichmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
)http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/collections/49_11_19.html - 1633/35 - The Battle between Carnival and lent, Oil on wood, (Indianapolis Museum of ArtIndianapolis Museum of ArtThe Indianapolis Museum of Art is an encyclopedic art museum located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The museum, which underwent a $74 million expansion in 2005, is located on a campus on the near northwest area outside downtown Indianapolis, northwest of Crown Hill Cemetery.The...
, IndianapolisIndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
)http://www.ima-art.org/provenanceDetail.asp?SID=0992FA686360474BA257C520BDCF5E20&TombstoneID=384&letter=M# - 1635 - Card Players, Oil on panel, (Currier Museum of ArtCurrier Museum of ArtThe Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, featuring European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O'Keeffe, Calder, Scheier and Goldsmith, John Singer Sargent,...
, ManchesterManchester, New HampshireManchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
)http://collections.currier.org/Obj827$1052 - 1635 - Family Making Music, Oil on panel, (Frans Hals MuseumFrans Hals MuseumThe Frans Hals Museum is a hofje and municipal museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1862 in the newly renovated former cloister located in the back of the Haarlem city hall known as the Prinsenhof...
, HaarlemHaarlemHaarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
)http://www.franshalsmuseum.collectionconnection.nl/FHM/franshals_e.aspx?p=full&iFirst=67&c=ludionwebsite&s=dateOfCreation - 1636 - The Denying of Peter, Oil on canvas, (Museum of Fine ArtsMuseum of Fine Arts (Budapest)The Museum of Fine Arts is a museum in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, facing the Palace of Art.It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an eclectic-neoclassical style, between 1900 and 1906. The museum's collection is made up of international art , including all...
, BudapestBudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
)http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/molenaer/index.html - 1640s - Woman Holding a Jug, Oil on panel, (Museum of Fine ArtsMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
)http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=35753&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=Molenaer&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=Paintings&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=1&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=0&coll_start=1