38 JAN STEEN SECT. dance to the music of a flute. Behind him are a young couple dancing ; another couple stand near the open door of the house. In the right fore- ground a boy is taking a mug full of wine from a large tub decorated with vine-leaves. In the left background a bird with a long tail sits on a perch near a cage. In the right background is an owl in a niche ; underneath it, upon a placard pinned to the wall, is a proverb (probably "Wat baeter Kaers of Bril, als den Uil niet zien en wil ? "). Panel, 35^ inches by 30 inches. Described by Ch. Blanc. Exhibited in the British Gallery, 1838. Formerly in the Poullain collection, Paris, No. 41, and engraved while there (Sm. 1833). Sales. Gagny, Paris, 1762 (1000 francs). Amsterdam, 1765, No. 36 (280 florins). Nogaret, Paris, 1780 (2401 francs). Langlier, Paris, 1786 (6000 francs). Robit, Paris, May 21, 1801 (2800 francs). H. Muilman, Amsterdam, April 12, 1813 (470 florins). George Morant, London, 1832 (205 guineas). In the collection of Sir Charles Coote, Bart., in 1842 (Sm.) ; afterwards in the collection of Sir Algernon Coote. Now in the collection of Hugh P. Lane, Dublin. 102. DISSOLUTE LIVING (" In Weelde siet toe "). Sm. 35 ; W. 162 and 347. A young man sits beside his mistress ; he rests his left foot on her lap. She holds a jug in her right hand and offers him a glass of wine. The young man turns to look at an old woman dressed in black, who brings roses in her apron and holds up a warning finger. Behind the young woman is a fiddler ; he is looking round at a little girl who takes advantage of the fact that a woman sitting at the table is asleep, to take a pot out of a cupboard. A boy near her smokes a pipe ; a dog stands on the table eating a pie. A little child in an infant's chair has thrown its bowl on the floor. A pig comes in at the door with the spigot of a cask in its mouth. In the midst of the company stands an old bent man, hold- ing a book ; upon his shoulder sits a duck, in allusion to the end of the debauch. In the right-hand bottom corner is a tablet inscribed, "In Weelde siet toe" ("Beware of luxury"), with a bill under it. It is a very good picture, resembling those in the Steengracht (132) and Van der Hoop (100) collections. The young woman in the centre with a ring suspended from a black chain round her neck frequently occurs in Steen's works, as in the Louvre picture (835). Signed upon the cask in the left-hand bottom corner : Waagen read the date as 1663, but it is now illegible ; canvas, 41^ inches by 58^ inches. Described by Ch. Blanc and Viardot. Sale. Bertels, Brussels, 1779 (610 florins). It was among the effects of the Duke of Lorraine, who died July 4, 1780 ; it hung in the Duke's dining-room at Brussels, and was valued at 600 florins (No. 6 in the original schedule of the inventory of the effects ; Mechel, 1783, p. 100, No. 27). Now in the Imperial Picture Gallery, Vienna, 1896 catalogue, No. 1305.
