i JAN STEEN 35 ably on a bench, and, with a bagpiper who stands at the back, accompanies the guests who are singing. A dog barks, a boy blows into a coffee-pot, and an infant screams in its mother's lap. Signed in full ; canvas, 24^ inches by 28^ inches. Formerly in the Van Falke collection. Now in the Oldenburg Museum, 1890 catalogue, No. 235; W. Martin regards it as a copy. 94. THE MERRY PARTY ("Soo de ouden songen, soo pijpen de jongen"). In the middle of a room is a table, laden with a dish of fruit and other articles of food and drink. Behind the table sits a smiling man, who stretches out his right hand to his wife ; she sits beside him and drinks out of a glass. With her left hand she points to a girl who is taking down an earthenware pot from the wall. To the right is an old woman, holding a music-book in her left hand and grasping with her right a boy who is on his knees. In the foreground a youth is filling a glass for a young girl who stands beside him. At the open window in the left middle distance sits an old man with his back to the spectator ; he holds a glass. A musician plays on the bagpipes. From the ceiling hangs an open cage, at the door of which is a parrot. In the right-hand bottom corner are a jug, a pan of charcoal, a bench with a pipe upon it, and a paper inscribed " Zoo de ouden zongen, zo pijpen de jongen." According to the catalogue, the picture probably represents the artist with his family ._ Canvas, 31 inches by 24^ inches. Formerly in the Van Suchtelen collection. Now in the Koucheleff-Besborodko collection in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, 1886 catalogue, No. 70. 95. THE MERRY PARTY ("Soo de ouden songen, soo pijpen de jongen"). At a table in the centre sits the mistress of the house, holding a little toy in her right hand. In the foreground to the right is the father (Steen himself), with his youngest child on his knee. To the left a young man playing a flute sits at the table, which is covered with a coloured cloth. On the extreme left is a girl holding in her right hand a sheet of paper, on which is inscribed the proverb, " Soo de ouden songen," etc. In the foreground to the left there is a violoncello ; on the right there is a dog. Behind the table stands a maid-servant with a " rommelpot." To the right of her are two musicians. A lad is surrep- titiously drinking from a pewter pot, which stands on a cask. To the left a pillared hall leads into the open air. On the stone floor lie playing- cards and a keyed pipe. This composition of ten figures is a late work, to judge from the style of the painting and from the age at which Steen represents himself. It is somewhat slighter in technique than his small pictures, but is undoubtedly a genuine and very good example. Signed in full on the pedestal of a pillar in the middle distance ; canvas, 44 inches by 52^ inches. [Compare the description of 99, which is identical with this.]
