Luce Foundation Center for American Art Painting: Pre-18th
century: Festive Scene Jan Miense Molenaer (born Haarlem,
Holland about 1610 -- died Haarlem, Holland 1668) Jan Miense
Molenaer captured the lively households and bawdy taverns of
seventeenth-century Holland. These images gave a comic spin to
the familiar morality tales, and were as appealing to American
patrons of the nineteenth century as they were in their own
time. Molenaer learned his craft in the lively art community of
Haarlem, where he married the respected painter Judith Leyster
in 1636. Not long after, the courts ordered his property
confiscated to pay debts, forcing Molenaer and his bride to flee
to Amsterdam. There, his financial situation improved with
important commissions and his wife’s inheritance. After twelve
years in Amsterdam, Molenaer purchased a house in Heemstede, but
he continued to accrue debt and sold his paintings to settle
accounts. A strong-willed and colorful character, Molenaer was
arrested more than once for public braw