The Oyster Eater
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The Oyster Eater (Dutch: Het oestereetstertje) or Girl Offering Oysters (Meisje, oesters aanbiedend), is a c.1658-1660 small oil on panel painting by Jan Steen.[1] Since 1936, it has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in the Hague.[1] This is a genre painting that demonstrates Steen's more intricate style and use of domestic settings.[2] It also shows Steen's use of symbolism with oysters to create a theme of earthly lust.[2]
Contents
Visual analysis
Subject matter
The main subject of the painting is a young woman salting oysters while making direct eye contact with the viewer.[2] Her expression is flirtatious and communicates to viewers that she is salting the oysters for them.[2]
Composition
In The Oyster Eater, Steen uses framing to create a very complicated yet skillful composition.[2] He uses the vertical and horizontal lines of the door frame, bed curtains, and the edge of the table to create an imaginary border around the young woman.[2] The arched top of the painting reflects the curvature of the girl's head and left shoulder.[2] The placement of objects such as the oyster point in a specific direction, allowing the viewer's eye to focus on the figures in the back room.[2] The placement of the background figures in a separate room is common in Dutch paintings and is referred to as doorsien (view through a doorway).[3] This technique also allows the viewer's eye to plunge into the background of a painting.[3] Artists like Steen added doorsien to paintings to create an atmosphere of diligence and desire among the subjects.[3] The use of doorsien also adds a sense of balance between the men in the background and the young woman in the foreground.[2]
Symbolism
In the context of this painting, the oysters convey an erotic meaning.[2] Oysters are thought to be an aphrodisiac, the most seductive being the ones that are rich and full.[2] Empty oyster shells or oysters placed alongside other partially eaten items like in The Oyster Eater imply the temporariness of earthly pleasures, a commonly repeated theme in Dutch art.[2] During the seventeenth century, shells started to make appearances in several Dutch genre paintings or merry company paintings.[2] They were objects of scientific interest to the Dutch who were interested in science and history.[2] Oysters also held an exotic connotation as many featured in Dutch paintings were from different continents, and they were used because they were seen as ancient souvenirs of the past.[2] In paintings that specifically included oysters, they were depicted as oyster meals.[4] Merry company paintings are thought to have originated from early sixteenth-century Flemish mythological paintings.[4] Oysters were a reminder of ancient times and symbolized Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fertility, pleasure, and sex throughout antiquity and all the way into Baroque art.[4] Oysters typically appeared in mythological paintings where Aphrodite and Dionysus were the main deities depicted.[4] The use of the oyster meal in Dutch genre paintings has been separated into two time periods.[4] The first time period lasted approximately from 1610 to 1635.[4] During this time, oysters were shown being consumed in merry company paintings.[4] Before the second time period, the Dutch government acquired control of pearl fisheries in Indian waters in 1658.[4] This happened as a result of conquering the Portuguese.[4] The pearl fisheries led to the development of oyster fisheries, which led to a new interest in the depiction of oysters in genre paintings.[4] In the second time period, which went from 1660 to 1680, oyster paintings were painted in more private settings.[4] Oyster meal paintings of the second time period were all set indoors and displayed some sort of a domestic interior.[4] Unlike the earlier merry company paintings that portrayed feasts, these later oyster paintings usually portrayed some kind of private, romantic meeting.[4]
Style
Influences
The style of Steen's The Oyster Eater comes close to the elegant style of Frans van Mieris the Elder.[2] Particularly, the arched top, small size, and extreme care of every small detail resemble the works of Gerrit Dou.[2] He was the great master of "fine painting" in Leiden and Mieris' teacher.[2]
Historical context
Artist background
Steen's The Oyster Eater is one of his many genre paintings that he made during the seventeenth century.[2] Steen's genre paintings generally included earthy humor, sometimes with satirical overtones.[2] They expressed the Dutch whim for portraiture, love of the home and family, and for moralistic messages, all typically found in domestic settings.[2] Steen typically depicted his subjects in a favorable or gratifying manner.[3] However, he would also make fun of his subjects by exposing their foolishness or strangeness.[5]
Themes
Love
Steen had an interest in the theme of love: contemporary or ancient.[5] He used love to expose the passion and vulnerability that overcomes humans when they are in love.[5] His use of humor in genre paintings helped to convey the follies of love in a relatable way.[5] Genre paintings of his that show a love theme include subjects such as marriage, brothel scenes, and the treatment of lovesickness (The Physician's Visit).[5] Steen also depicts two different kinds of love in his genre paintings: sacred love and profane love.[5] Steen's paintings of sacred love such as The Marriage of Tobias and Sarah show a young, innocent love that is internal and makes the subjects oblivious to everything else in the world.[5] In Steen's works depicting profane love, he tried to show all sides of love and desire.[5] To viewers of Steen's profane love paintings, the subjects were more exciting and taught more about the follies of the world.[5] These paintings demonstrate concepts of lust, incest, and mass abduction.[5] One example of Steen's profane love images is Easy Come, Easy Go which also uses oysters as a symbol of lust.[5]
Provenance
The whereabouts of The Oyster Eater before 1783 are unknown.[1] The painting is known to have been owned by Pieter Locquet who sold it to Pieter van Winter in Amsterdam in September of 1783.[1] Van Winter passed it along to his daughter, Lucretia Johanna van Winter, in 1822.[1] The painting was in her possession all throughout her marriage to Hendrik Six van Hillegom.[1] Then, it was inherited and kept by Jan Pieter and Pieter Hendrik Six van Vromade until 1905.[1] The Oyster Eater was left to Jan Pieter's son, Professor Jan Six, who owned it until the 1920s.[1] In 1928, it was sold again to Beets of Deterding.[1] The painting was gifted to the Mauritshuis by Sir Henri W.A. Deterding in 1936.[1]
Notes
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References
- Cloutier-Blazzard, Kimberlee A. "The Elephant in the Living Room: Jan Steen's Fantasy Interior as Parodic Portrait of the Schouten Family." Aurora, The Journal of the History of Art 11 (2010): 91.
- Liana De Girolami Cheney. "The Oyster in Dutch Genre Paintings: Moral or Erotic Symbolism." Artibus Et Historiae 8, no. 15 (1987): 135-58. doi:10.2307/1483275.
- Khar, Madlyn Milner. “Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century.” New York: Harper and Row. 1978.
- Kirschenbaum, Baruch David, and Jan Steen. The Religious and Historical Paintings of Jan Steen. New York: Allanheld & Schram, 1977.
- "Jan Steen The Oyster Eater." Mauritshuis. 2019. March 12, 2019. https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/the-collection/artworks/girl-eating-oysters-818/.
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