The Oyster Eater

The Oyster Eater (Dutch: Het oestereetstertje) or Girl Offering Oysters (Meisje, oesters aanbiedend) is a small oil-on-panel painting by Jan Steen dating to c.1658–1660.^[1] Since 1936, it has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in the Hague.^[1] It is a genre painting that demonstrates Steen's intricate style and use of domestic settings.^[2] It also shows Steen's use of symbolism with oysters to create a theme of earthly lust.^[2]

The main subject of the painting is a young woman salting oysters while making direct eye contact with the viewer.^[2] Her expression is flirtatious and communicates to viewers that she is salting the oysters for them.^[2]

In The Oyster Eater, Steen uses framing to create a complicated yet skillful composition.^[2] He uses the vertical and horizontal lines of the door frame, bed curtains, and the edge of the table to create an imaginary border around the young woman.^[2] The arched top of the painting reflects the curvature of the girl's head and left shoulder.^[2] The placement of objects such as the oyster point in a specific direction, allowing the viewer's eye to focus on the figures in the back room.^[2] The placement of the background figures in a separate room is common in Dutch paintings and is referred to as doorsien (view through a doorway).^[3] This technique also allows the viewer's eye to plunge into the background of a painting.^[3] Artists like Steen added doorsien to paintings to create an atmosphere of diligence and desire among the subjects.^[3] The use of doorsien also adds a sense of balance between the men in the background and the young woman in the foreground.^[2]

In the context of this painting, the oysters convey an erotic meaning.^[2] Oysters are thought to be an aphrodisiac, the most seductive being the ones that are rich and full.^[2] Empty oyster shells or oysters placed alongside other partially eaten items like in The Oyster Eater imply the temporariness of earthly pleasures, a commonly repeated theme in Dutch art.^[2] During the seventeenth century, shells started to make appearances in several Dutch genre paintings or merry company paintings.^[2] They were objects of scientific interest to the Dutch who were interested in science and history.^[2] Oysters also held an exotic connotation as many featured in Dutch paintings were from different continents, and they were used because they were seen as ancient souvenirs of the past.^[2] In paintings that specifically included oysters, they were depicted as oyster meals.^[4] Merry company paintings are thought to have originated from early sixteenth-century Flemish mythological paintings.^[4] Oysters were a reminder of ancient times and symbolized Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fertility, pleasure, and sex throughout antiquity and all the way into Baroque art.^[4] Oysters typically appeared in mythological paintings where Aphrodite and Dionysus were the main deities depicted.^[4] The use of the oyster meal in Dutch genre paintings has been separated into two time periods.^[4] The first time period lasted approximately from 1610 to 1635.^[4] During this time, oysters were shown being consumed in merry company paintings.^[4] Before the second time period, the Dutch government acquired control of pearl fisheries in Indian waters in 1658.^[4] This happened as a result of conquering the Portuguese.^[4] The pearl fisheries led to the development of oyster fisheries, which led to a new interest in the depiction of oysters in genre paintings.^[4] In the second time period, which went from 1660 to 1680, oyster paintings were painted in more private settings.^[4] Oyster meal paintings of the second time period were all set indoors and displayed some sort of a domestic interior.^[4] Unlike the earlier merry company paintings that portrayed feasts, these later oyster paintings usually portrayed some kind of private, romantic meeting.^[4]

The style of Steen's The Oyster Eater comes close to the elegant style of Frans van Mieris the Elder.^[2] Particularly, the arched top, small size, and extreme care of every small detail resemble the works of Gerrit Dou,^[2] who was the great master of "fine painting" in Leiden and Mieris' teacher.^[2]

Steen's The Oyster Eater is one of his many genre paintings.^[2] These paintings generally included earthy humor, sometimes with satirical overtones.^[2] They expressed the Dutch whim for portraiture, love of the home and family, and for moralistic messages, all typically found in domestic settings.^[2] Steen typically depicted his subjects in a favorable or gratifying manner.^[3] However, he would also make fun of his subjects by exposing their foolishness or strangeness.^[5]

Steen had an interest in the theme of love: contemporary or ancient.^[5] He used love to expose the passion and vulnerability that overcomes humans when they are in love.^[5] His use of humor in genre paintings helped to convey the follies of love in a relatable way.^[5] Genre paintings of his that show a love theme include subjects such as marriage, brothel scenes, and the treatment of lovesickness (The Physician's Visit).^[5] Steen depicts two different kinds of love in his genre paintings: sacred love and profane love.^[5] Steen's paintings of sacred love, such as The Marriage of Tobias and Sarah, show a young, innocent love that makes the subjects oblivious to everything else in the world.^[5] Steen's works depicting profane love associate love and desire with the follies of the world.^[5] These paintings demonstrate concepts of lust, incest, and mass abduction.^[5] One example of Steen's profane love images is Easy Come, Easy Go which also uses oysters as a symbol of lust.^[5]

The whereabouts of The Oyster Eater before 1783 are unknown.^[1] The painting is known to have been owned by Pieter Locquet who sold it to Pieter van Winter in Amsterdam in September 1783.^[1] Van Winter passed it along to his daughter, Lucretia Johanna van Winter, in 1822.^[1] The painting was in her possession all throughout her marriage to Hendrik Six van Hillegom.^[1] Then, it was inherited and kept by Jan Pieter and Pieter Hendrik Six van Vromade until 1905.^[1] The Oyster Eater was left to Jan Pieter's son, Professor Jan Six, who owned it until the 1920s.^[1] In 1928, it was sold again to Beets of Deterding.^[1] The painting was gifted to the Mauritshuis by Sir Henri W.A. Deterding in 1936.^[1]

• Cloutier-Blazzard, Kimberlee A. "The Elephant in the Living Room: Jan Steen's Fantasy Interior as Parodic Portrait of the Schouten Family." Aurora, The Journal of the History of Art 11 (2010): 91.
• Liana De Girolami Cheney. "The Oyster in Dutch Genre Paintings: Moral or Erotic Symbolism." Artibus Et Historiae 8, no. 15 (1987): 135–58. doi:10.2307/1483275.
• Kahr, Madlyn Milner. “Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century.” New York: Harper and Row. 1978.
• Kirschenbaum, Baruch David, and Jan Steen. The Religious and Historical Paintings of Jan Steen. New York: Allanheld & Schram, 1977.
• "Jan Steen The Oyster Eater." Mauritshuis. 2019. March 12, 2019. https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/the-collection/artworks/girl-eating-oysters-818/.

• [1].