Das Austern essende Mädchen

This is a tiny thing, barely the size of a sheet of paper, and Steen painted every inch of it to be examined from close up. A young woman looks straight out at us, half-smiling, sprinkling salt onto an oyster she is about to hand over. In a Dutch household of the 1650s the meaning would have been plain. Oysters were thought to stir desire, salt likewise, and the curtained bed just visible behind her removes any doubt about what is on offer. The luxuries on the table are painted with a jeweller's care: the Delft-blue jug, the twist of paper holding pepper, the gleam of a silver dish. Steen made his living from these knowing domestic scenes, and he liked to cast his own family and tavern world in them.