Merry Company

This lively work depicts people in what is presumably a tavern. Although the exact nature of the scene is slightly vague, one scholar has identified the merrymakers as an amateur literary society. These groups, first established in the Netherlands in the 16th century, presented dramatic readings, performances, and literary competitions.

The bearded older man leans intimately over the woman’s shoulder to read from her song sheet. Dressed in a costume fashionable in the previous century, he has a sprig of flowers tucked into his hatband, perhaps to spruce up his dress and render himself more youthful. The woman’s foot, however, suggests the real object of her interest, the young violinist. A fourth figure, laughing and hoisting his glass, is identified by his flat red cap as the "fool," who traditionally functioned as observer or commentator on actions within a scene. The man silhouetted in the doorway at the rear is a portrait of the artist. Steen frequently inserted his own likeness into his paintings, thereby personally inviting the viewer’s complicity in the scene.