Sick old Man 1660

Curator: Jan Steen’s “Sick Old Man,” painted around 1660, is a vibrant oil on canvas currently residing at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It’s a wonderfully busy scene, full of details, painted during the Dutch Golden Age. Editor: My first thought is “organized chaos.” The eye doesn't quite know where to land, yet there's a compelling story unfolding within the layers of domestic clamor. It feels very performative somehow. Curator: Steen often used genre painting as a way to hint at larger moral or social lessons through comedic scenes of daily life. You have an old man, supposedly sick, surrounded by figures attending to him— or at least appearing to. Editor: Right, I'm thinking about what’s being staged here, and what's *really* happening with all this fussing. There's something not quite right about their caring gestures— are they genuinely concerned, or just angling for something? It makes you wonder what objects might carry value beyond mere currency for these folks: this elaborate costume, the earthenware jar, the painterly depictions of fruit that lie on the floor. Curator: I suspect Steen's commentary on the illusion of care versus the tangible elements of the patient's life— perhaps highlighting anxieties over inheritance, as he so often does! The clothing and various objects scattered hint at material motivations undermining the scene. Even that curious looking enema implement held by the women near the back. Editor: Good point! The staging isn't just social; it’s entirely material, pointing to consumption and all these very "thingy" concerns related to sickness: tools for remedy, goods in preparation... the artist’s medium is very relevant here, it’s through layers of paint and pigments that the figures exist materially, and enact Steen’s dark comic critique! Curator: Indeed! Steen invites us into a moment thick with implication. As he does across his whole ouevre of work he masterfully employs paint to bring to life these moral dramas and social critiques with such wit and clarity. Editor: This piece provides such rich ground for thinking about objects and the anxieties around health in 17th century life and beyond!