Jan Steen
Dutch, 1626–1679

The Family Concert, 1666

Oil on canvas
86.6 x 101 cm (34 1/8 x 39 3/4 in.)
Gift of Timothy B. Blackstone, 1891.65

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Baltimore Museum of Art, Musical Instruments and Their Portrayal in Art, April 26–June 2, 1946, no. 35.

Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Paintings of 17th Century Dutch Interiors, December 1, 1967–January 7, 1968, no. 19.

Art Institute of Chicago, A Case for Wine, July 11–September 20, 2009, no cat.

Publication History

John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 4 (London, 1833), pp. 59–60, no. 176.

Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Works of Old Dutch Masters and Other Pictures (Chicago, 1890), p. 29; reprinted (Chicago, 1892).

“Chicago an Art Center,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1890, p. 1.

Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1901), p. 141, no. 4.

Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1904), p. 147, no. 4.

Art Institute of Chicago, Important Facts Regarding the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1905), pp. 6, 9, ill.

Masters in Art: A Series of Illustrated Monographs, vol. 6 (Boston, 1905), p. 293.

Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Sculpture, Paintings and Other Objects (Chicago, 1907), p. 158, no. 4.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century based on the Work of John Smith, vol. 1 (London, 1907), p. 115, no. 442.

Art Institute of Chicago, The Collections Illustrated: With a Historical Sketch and Description of the Museum (Chicago, 1910), p. 22.

Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings (Chicago, 1920), p. 18, no. 4.

Eduard Trautscholdt, “Steen, Jan,” in Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 31 (Leipzig, 1931), p. 512.

Charles Fabens Kelley, “Chicago: Record Years,” Art News 51, 4 (1952), p. 59.

Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 187, 440, ill.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), pp. 261, 286, ill; reprinted (London, 1977) and (London, 1987).

Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986), p. 48, 53, ill.

Walter Liedtke, “Toward a History of Dutch Genre Painting II: The South Holland Tradition,” in Roland E. Fleischer and Susan Scott Munshower, eds, The Age of Rembrandt: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (University Park, PA, 1988), p. 128, ill.

Walter Liedtke, “The Collectors and Their Ideals,” in Ben Broos, Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat. (The Hague, Mauritshuis, 1990), p. 35.

Jon Margolis, “Off-the-Wall Lessons in History: One Man’s Unorthodox View of the Art Institute of Chicago,” Chicago Tribune Magazine (September 17, 1995), p. 15, ill.

M. Therese Southgate, The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association (St. Louis, 1997), pp. 6–7, ill.

Mariët Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Seen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century (Zwolle, 1997), p. 246 n. 48.

Dieter Beaujean, Bilder in Bildern: Studien zur niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts (Weimar, 2001), p. 137 n. 452.

Celia Hilliard, “‘The Prime Mover”: Charles L. Hutchinson and the Making of the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 36, 1 (2010), p. 43.

Ownership History

Sir Charles Bagot, Bart., by 1833 [according to Smith 1833]. Presumably Prince Anatole Demidoff, Villa San Donato, near Florence (died 1870); by descent to his nephew Prince Paul Demidoff (died 1885) and included in the sale of the contents of Villa San Donato, Pillet, Mannheim, and Le Roy, Florence, March 15, 1880, lot 1054, bought in; remained in the Demidoff collection, passing into the possession of Paul Demidoff’s widow, Helena Troubetskoi, Pratolino, near Florence; included in the group of 13 paintings from the Demidoff collection sold to trustees of the Art Institute through Durand-Ruel, Paris, in 1890; purchase price reimbursed by Timothy B. Blackstone, 1891.