![Jan Steen - The Dissolute Household [c.1663-64] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7399/9173409918_50d6dec92c.jpg)
This canvas dates from the 1660s, when Steen lived in Haarlem. During that decade, the artist painted this subject and works with closely related themes in a steady stream of variations. Some of them bear inscriptions, which provide, in striking contrast to most Dutch genre paintings of the period, titles that were given in the artist's lifetime, often by the painter himself. Steen placed the unnecessary notice Bedurfve huishow (Disorderly Household) on a picture with a different composition (Wellington Museum, London) but the same subject as here.
Steen's canvas may be said to concisely catalogue many of Holland's favourite faults. The sins of Sloth (embodied by the old woman at left), Lust, and Gluttony (the latter concerns any comestible, including tobacco), are at home with seemingly lesser offenses, such as sacrilege (the trampled Bible), gambling (the backgammon board), personal vanity and, of course, poor parenting skills - one of Steen's standard subjects. These diverse violations lead to the supreme sin in Holland of a disorderly household, a form of discord (indicated here by the snapped lute strings) that in Dutch genre paintings is confirmed by litter on the floor and cats having carte blanche in the larder.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 108 x 90.2 cm]