Skittle Players outside an Inn

Jan Steen probably painted this small panel between 1660 and 1663, in his first years in Haarlem. Most of his pictures crowd people indoors. Here he steps outside, into the yard of an inn that the Gallery takes to be the White Swan, going by the sign hanging from its post. Tall trees catch the evening light. A young man in a white shirt leans into his throw, the ball held low, aiming at the wooden skittles standing in the sand, and the men beside him watch closely. One, with his hat set straight on his head, looks like a self-appointed referee. On the grass a couple sit by a jug, and a man with a pipe turns his back on the game. Steen painted much of it wet-in-wet, working fresh paint into paint that had not yet dried.