Bathsheba After the Bath
Om maleriet
Bathsheba stares brazenly out at the viewer while a maidservant trims her toenails. King David, who saw her beauty and desired her, sent her a summons to appear at his palace. Although she was married, Bathsheba was forced to comply. A popular subject, artists often portrayed Bathsheba as distraught about her dilemma. Here, Jan Steen depicted her as a temptress, rather than the innocent victim of the king's passion. In this moralizing painting, Steen commented on the foolishness of human behavior. Bathsheba's robe is casually arranged to reveal her breast and bare legs. The shoe in the right foreground symbolizes lasciviousness; the fountain on the left probably alludes to female fecundity. She is so lost in her thoughts that she holds King David's note loosely in her right hand and pays no attention to the small dog or to the old woman grasping her shoulder.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Oplysninger
Imens i livet hos Jan Steen
Hele livet1660–1670
Haarlem: his most productive period
From 1660 to 1670 Steen lived in Haarlem, and this was the most productive period of his life.
1669–1670
The deaths of his wife, mother and father
By 1669 Steen's finances had improved, but in the spring his wife died, later that year his mother, and a year later his father.
1670
Returns to Leiden, to his parents' house
After his father's death Steen returned to Leiden and lived for the rest of his life in the house he inherited from his parents.
1671
Elected head of the Leiden Guild of St Luke
In 1671 Steen was elected princeps — head — of the local Guild of St Luke.
1672
Opens the tavern “De Vrede” (“Peace”)
Steen opened the tavern “De Vrede” (“Peace”); his debts mounted again, the art market was declining, and according to Houbraken he often spent his time drinking.
1672
The “Year of Disaster”: the art market collapses
In 1672, known in the Netherlands as the “Year of Disaster”, the art market collapsed.
