Nº 44
Reading edition
Jan Havicksz Steen DUTCH: 1626-1679
THE MERRY COUPLE
Height, 11 inches; width, 9 inches
In a rustic interior in Holland a peasant girl is seated, holding in her lap a pewter porringer, resting her right elbow on a barrel. Beside her sits her peasant lover, playing some prank at which both are heartily laughing. In the gloom of the interior in the background are seen a hooded chimney-place with a fire on the hearth, and a curtained bed. A square-shouldered gin bottle and a thick pancake stand on the head of the barrel beside the girl, and various articles of domestic use are hung in the fireplace and on the walls.
Signed at the upper right, .
![Illustration from Catalogue of valuable paintings and water colors mostly of the modern Dutch school, forming the private collection of A. Augustus Healy, Esq., Brooklyn: to be disposed of at unrestricted public sale ... February 15 [1907] at Mendelssohn Hall](/illustrations/f33a347fe0e01ff1.jpg)
Collection of P. C. Hanford, New York, 1902.