The Tooth-Puller

The date 1651 is painted on this small canvas, and because Jan Steen dated so few of his pictures, it has become one of the fixed points scholars use to put the rest of his work in order. He was then at the very beginning of his career. The subject is one he came back to all his life, the travelling quack who promised cures to trusting country people. Here a tooth-puller sets to work on a young patient while onlookers crowd in to watch. Even this early, Steen could paint with a very fine brush, and he saved that care for a few places. One is the face of the patient at the centre. Another is the paper laid out on the table, the charlatan's certificate with its seal, there to persuade everyone that he knows his trade. In 1763 the picture was bought at a sale in The Hague for the young Prince William V, for 160 guilders. It belongs to the Mauritshuis and hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V, the picture gallery the prince opened to visitors in 1774.