The Schoolmaster

Steen’s years in Haarlem were the most productive and important of his career. His most successful works during this period self-consciously and playfully subvert the wholesome imagery that had become so fashionable during the economically heady decades following the Treaty of Minister. For instance, paintings of children at school, a theme popularised by Gerrit Dou, resounded with references to learning, vigilance, and studiousness. But in Steen’s hand serious instructors and conscientious pupils are replaced by aged dimwits in outlandish attire who are either completely oblivious to their charges’ mischief or aggressively mete out discipline with their omnipresent wooden spoons.