As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young (Jan Steen)

The painting is a celebratory holiday scene that depicts three generations of a Dutch family and serves as an allegory about parental examples, vice, and influence.

[3] Like Jordaens, Steen paired proverbs with merry company paintings, which was popular and served a didactic purpose for the viewer.

The painting consists of a gathering of family members (parents, children, grandparents) around a table that is draped with a carpet typical of Dutch scenes.

[4] Though the subject has been painted by Steen an estimated thirteen times, each one was depicted in a household setting as the theme for child rearing and parental interaction.

[1] Like most of Steen's paintings As the Old Sing... is of the merry company genre and depicts family life as a part of popular culture during the 17th century.

The old lady in the foreground, thought to be Steen's mother, is holding a sheet of music that is open and can be easily read by the viewer.

[1] Steen is distinguished as a skilled comic painter and for depicting himself in his paintings, as well as members of his own family.

Such a painting was thought by the artist to have universal appeal and understanding, but of course, it would have had more resonance with a well-read person familiar with the proverbs, symbolism, and culture of the seventeenth century.

[2] The figures in the scene are Jan Steen at the right wearing a black hat and teaching his younger son to smoke, his older son playing a bagpipe, a young girl at the far right edge of the canvas, Steen's mother in the right-side foreground, and an unknown female family member holding a baby.

The laughing face of Jan Steen is commonly depicted by the artist in his paintings and is considered to be his iconography[1][2] while laughter is also thought to be a symbol of foolishness and or fault.

[2] Jan Steen has been described by historians as being from a middle-class, Catholic family of Leiden, who was also preoccupied with drinking and imprudent of his finances.

[1] As a member of the guild Steen is thought to have pursued comic painting as the path to a chosen specialization.

[1] Patrons tended to be members of respectable professions including doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, manufacturers, and an innkeeper.