Jan Sten: "Stop, moment, you are fine"

Jan Sten (1626-1679) is a Dutch artist of the 17th century. This is the Golden Age of painting of Holland. His work is known and recognizable for psychology, a sense of humor, an abundance of light and colors. Self-portrait with a lute, written by Jan Sten, vividly expresses the manner of his work and attitude to the world and himself. And this despite the fact that his life was far from smooth.

Youth

Jan Sten came from a family of well-to-do brewers in Leiden. He was the eldest of eight children and was educated in Leiden with painter Nicholas Knupfer. At age 22, Jan Sten and his companion founded the guild of St. Luke. A little later he became an assistant to the popular landscape painter Goyen. The artist moved to his teacher's house in The Hague, got carried away and married his daughter Marguerite. They had eight children. Although as an artist, Stan was very prolific (he wrote about 800 canvases in his life, of which about 400-450 survived), there was not enough money to live and support the family.

Mature years

He had already moved to Delft, where he ran three years of brewery. Pictures continued to write. In 1654, in Delft after the tragedy (the explosion of gunpowder warehouses), painting practically ceased to be in demand. Two periods were very fruitful for creativity. From 1656 to 1660, when the artist lived in Warmonda, and from 1660 to 1670 - in Haarlem.

Strip of disasters

In 1669, his wife died, and Ian Sten, at the insistence of his father, returned to Leiden. He lived in it for the rest of his life. 1672 is the year of catastrophe and disaster, when the Dutch Republic was simultaneously attacked by Britain and France, and a war broke out. Of course, the paintings were not needed by anyone. Stan opened the tavern. The widower and his children found it difficult to manage the household, and in 1673 he married a widow with two children. They had one more child. In 1674 he became the head of the guild of St. Luke. In 1679, the painter died in Leiden and was buried in a family crypt. This is a short biography of a remarkable painter named Jan Sten. The biography is full of unpredictable troubles and tragedies, and the painting is filled with humor and playful genre scenes.

Creation

The Dutch so highly appreciate the talent of the master that they put him almost on a par with Rembrandt, Vermeer and Khals. The artist Jan Sten tells of the merry and dissolute life of whole families and individuals. His paintings are mostly multifigured. Often, they meet two or three characters, rarely - one. Popular topics: doctor's visit, holiday scenes, feast, lady at the toilet. Each work is filled with carefully written out details. Below you can see the work "Happy Family" (1668). It gathered around a table with a ham for everyone and bread, as well as a vessel with wine. The head of the family has already raised the goblet and is cheerfully singing the songs to the sounds of the trumpets played by the older children. One already emptied bottle is lying on the floor, and the younger one was taken over by younger children. No one pays any attention to them. The mother, who holds the baby in her arms, was carried away by reading the letter. His grandmother shows it to her. There is also a dog here, who also wants to join the general joy by getting a piece of ham. The painter looks at the carefree world cordially and kindly.

Characters an artist loves

Heroes Wall - often wealthy citizens who know how and like to have fun. The canvas "Rhetoric at the Window" shows "scientists" who already had a lot of fun at the table, and now they want to throw word-another with passers-by. The character of each is reflected on the face, someone is complacent, someone is cheerful, someone is a bore. They are shown with a kindly irony. The artist masterfully possesses both a psychological portrait and color.

"Drinkers"

So at auctions often called a painting from the "Hermitage", which in 1660, wrote Jan Sten. "Gulyas" is its Russian name. By frequent estimates - this is his self-portrait with his wife Margaret. This is a complete story about living in poverty, but not in anguish. "Wealth, honor, in the end, bring little happiness. And I'm sorry for cowards and fools, that they are obedient to the authorities, "- after Burns could repeat the artist.

The interior is dark and dirty. Copper dishes on the shelves do not shine, the walls are smoky. On the table, except for the pot-bellied bottle and mug, there is nothing. Margaret drank and nodded, leaning her elbows on the table. With her feet fell sneakers, she dropped her pipe to the floor, and just about to fall off the table a dish and a knife, and maybe a stray tablecloth. But the owner cheerfully smokes the tube and does not pay attention to these little things, that is, he sees them as a painter, with irony, and is quite indifferent to them as a person.

Creative dictation: Jan Sten, "Strict Teacher"

What is the creative dictation? The teacher uses it to develop coherent speech, expand and activate the vocabulary of his students, improve spelling. It can be of two types:

• On a certain topic, everyone selects and parses words, then they form sentences, and then the story.
• First, the teacher reads the text on the given topic. Then there is his analysis, the words that the students must use are specified. Only after this, the students freely expound the material studied, not forgetting the obligatory words.

For this, we can consider the picture "Strict Teacher" (1668). The teacher is ready to punish anyone who will not be engaged in something. In this case, he has a wooden beater in his hands. In the foreground the boy diligently writes something. A child in blue, wiping his tears, listens to the teacher's explanation. Over his shoulder a younger boy looks in at his notebook. He is again ready to listen to the explanation, in order to repeat everything briskly and give the correct answer. The fourth child just listens to speech. The teacher's face (not that he is strict) expresses a lot of patience and desire to understand clearly the difficult text to the child.

Even in this seemingly moralizing canvas, the artist shows life as a comedy of morals, looking with complacency at the attempts of children and teachers.