Steen Jan Havicksz called Jan Steen

Bio

Born the son of a brewer in Leiden in 1625 or 1626 (exact date unknown), Jan Steen enrolled at the University there in 1646 at the age of twenty. IIn his 1927 book on the artist, Wayerman asserts (p. 348) that Steen embarked on his artistic training, under the tutelage of, first, Nikolaus Knüpfer in Utrecht, then Adriaen van Ostade in Haarlem, and finally, Jan van Goyan, whose daughter, Margaretha, Steen married in 1649. Historians have documented Steen’s presence in Leiden in 1644, 46, and in 48, when he joined the city’s newly founded St. Lukes Painter’s Guild. By 1649 the artist and his new wife resided in The Hague, where they remained for the next five years.