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The Pancake Woman
ca. 1661-166926 1/4 x 20 7/16 in. (66.7 x 51.9 cm)
Jan Steen
Netherlands (1626 - 1679)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Bertha Buswell Bequest
Accession Number:
1955.71
Location: Currently on view
Collection:
Buswell-Hochstetter Collection
Pancake vendors, much like outdoor food vendors today, were a common sight on Dutch streets during the 1600s. Originally a delicacy prepared on the festival day of Shrove Tuesday, the last day of Carnival and the day before the beginning of Lent, pancakes were associated with feasting and wild behavior. Images of pancake makers were initially moralistic in nature, symbolizing gluttony and lust. By the 17th century, pancakes were eaten every day and the theme lost some of its allegorical significance. The scene retained its popularity among painters and printmakers of “low-life” genre scenes, or scenes of everyday peasant and street life.
[Gallery label text]
Steen was a prolific artist who specialized in low-life genre scenes, such as the popular subject of the pancake maker. A delicacy prepared especially on Vastenavond, or Shrove Tuesday, which was the last day of Carnival, the pancake had become associated with feasting and riotous behavior. It was therefore identified with overindulgence and became a symbol of gluttony or lust. During the seventeenth century, however, pancakes began to be enjoyed at any time, which reduced the allegorical potency of the theme.
[Gallery label text]
[Gallery label text]
Steen was a prolific artist who specialized in low-life genre scenes, such as the popular subject of the pancake maker. A delicacy prepared especially on Vastenavond, or Shrove Tuesday, which was the last day of Carnival, the pancake had become associated with feasting and riotous behavior. It was therefore identified with overindulgence and became a symbol of gluttony or lust. During the seventeenth century, however, pancakes began to be enjoyed at any time, which reduced the allegorical potency of the theme.
[Gallery label text]
Marks
Said to be signed at lower right edge with monogram, now visible only under IR
Provenance
Joseph Neeld (1789-1856), Wiltshire, England, by 1854; by descent to Sir Audley Neeld (d. 1941), Wiltshire, England; Jacques Goudstikker (1897-1940), Amsterdam, by 1919; Willibald Duschnitz (1884-1976), Vienna, by 1920; purchased from him in 1934 by Bertha Hochstetter Buswell (Mrs. Henry Buswell), Buffalo, NY; her bequest to the Gallery, 1941; lifetime interest held by her brother, Ralph Hochstetter, Buffalo, NY, until his death in 1955, when it passed to the Gallery
Keywords
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genre scenes
scenes of everyday life
scenes of everyday life
jobs & work
depictions of working, also professions as subcategories
depictions of working, also professions as subcategories
Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Jan Steen 5/13/1909 - 6/30/1909
- Collectie Goudstikker 5/1/1919 - 6/30/1919
- Das Holländische Sittenbild im XVII Jahrhundert 5/20/1930 - 6/20/1930
- The Buswell-Hochstetter Collections 11/11/1955 - 11/28/1955
- The Dutch in New York 10/9/1959 - 12/13/1959
- Seventeenth Century Painters of Haarlem Allentown Museum of Art 4/2/1965 - 6/13/1965
- Dutch Life in the Golden Century 1/21/1975 - 5/4/1975
- The Kitchen and The Gallery: The Artist and The Chef Charles Burchfield Center 5/9/1982 - 6/20/1982
- Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life Albany Institute of History & Art 9/21/2002 - 12/8/2002
- Rembrandt's World: Prints and Drawings from the Dutch Golden Age Memorial Art Gallery 11/21/2003 - 1/11/2004
- I Am Here: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces 4/11/2022 - 8/14/2022
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. New York, New York: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: The November Exhibitions: The Buswell-Hochstetter Collections. Article Scope: Article. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 21, Issue Number: 2. Issue Date: November-December, 1955.
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester Handbook. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1961.
- Docent Newsletter. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery
- Article Scope: Mention. Elizabeth Brayer. Magnum Opus: The Story of the Memorial Art Gallery, 1913-1988. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 1988.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Donna R. & Peter G. Rose Barnes. Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in 17th Century Dutch Art & Life. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002.
- Article Scope: Mention. Gustav Waagen. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. London, England, 1854. Volume Number: II
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Thomas R. Rumsey. Men and Women in Revolution and War, 1600-1815. Wellesley Hills, MA: The Independent School Press, 1985.
- Article Scope: Mention. Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America . Washington D.C.: Netherlands-American Amity Trust ; Grand Rapids : Wm. B. Erdmans, 1986.
- Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Franklin Westcott Robinson. Dutch Life in the Golden Century: An Exhibition of Seventeenth Century Dutch Painting of Daily Life. St. Petersburg, FL: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, 1975.
- Article Scope: Entry. C. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. London, England: Macmillan and Co., 1907. Volume Number: vol. I
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Das Holländische Sittenbild im XVII Jahrhundert. Vienna: Galerie Neumann & Salzer, 1930.
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Franklin Westcott Robinson. Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667): A Study of His Place in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age. New York, NY: Abner Schram, 1974.
- Catalogus van de Collectie Goudstikker. Rotterdam: Academie van Beeldende Kunsten en Technische Wetenschappen, 1919.
- Article Scope: Entry. Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Jan Steen: Organized by Messers. Dowdeswell in aid of the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. London, England: The Dowdeswell Galleries, 1909.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Donna Barnes and Ruud Spruit. Food for Thought: Food and drink in seventeenth-century Dutch art and life. Amsterdam: Westfries Museum, 2010.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Donna Barnes and Peter Rose. Childhood Pleasures: Dutch Children in the Seventeenth Century. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012.
- Article Author: Chipman, Harold H., and Leonhard Weidinger. Article Title: Ein Enthusiast für Industrie und Kunst-- Willibald Duschnitz. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Eva Blimlinger, ed. Die Praxis des Sammelns: . Vienna: Böhlau Verlag GmbH & Co., 2014. Page Number: 80, 85, Figure Number: 3, abb. 5
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Jim Shedden, ed. I Am Here: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces. Toronto, Ontario: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2022.
Portfolio List
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