Style Imitating Art: The Drawing Lesson by Jan Steen

I am excited to kick off another year of art history mixed with creative fashion with our first Style Imitating Art challenge of 2023!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Terri. You can read why she picked this work here.

“The Drawing Lesson” by Jan Steen

About the Artist: Jan Steen

Dutch painter Jan Havickszoon Steen was born in 1626 in Leiden, Southern Holland, the eldest of at least eight children, to a thriving Catholic family of successful brewers who ran The Red Halbert tavern for two generations. During his formative years, Jan Steen attended the Latin school like his more famous contemporary Rembrandt van Rijn. Although no official records of Steen’s artistic training or education exist, contemporary art historians say that he received the majority of his education from three Dutch painters, Nikolaus Knüpfer, Adriaen van Ostade, and Jan Josephszoon van Goyen, who would later become his father-in-law.

In 1648, along with fellow painter Gabriël Metsu, Steen co-founded the painters’ Guild of Saint Luke at Leiden. Shortly after, he became assistant to renowned landscape artist Jan van Goyen, moving into his house on The Hague. On October 3, 1649, Steen married van Goyen’s daughter Margriet. They had eight children together while Steen continued to work for his father-in-law until 1654. Steen then moved to the Delft where he unsuccessfully operated the brewery De Slang for three years. Throughout his adult life, he moved around Holland living in Warmond from 1656-1660 and in Haarlem from 1660-1670, with both locations proving to be especially productive for the painter. After his wife died in 1669 followed by the death of his father in 1670, Steen returned to Leiden where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Following the collapse of the art market in 1672, Steen opened a tavern. The following year he married Maria van Egmont who would produce another child. Six years later, Jan Steen passed away in Leiden on February 3, 1679, at the age of 52 or 53. He is buried in a family grave in the Pieterskerk.

About the Art: The Drawing Lesson

The Drawing Lesson is an oil on panel painted sometime around 1665. It measures 49.2 × 41.2 cm (19 3/8 × 16 1/4 in.) with a signature in the lower left corner, “JS” (in monogram) “ti–” (unclear). It was sold to Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum in 1983 where it is currently on exhibit at the Getty Center, Museum East Pavilion, Gallery E204.

Using the Getty’s words to describe the painting because I cannot do it any better…

“In this allegory of the status of the artist and the nature of his profession, a male artist instructs two pupils: a young boy and a fashionably dressed young woman. A plaster cast of a sculpture of a nude male seems to be the object of the day’s exercise in how to draw, but the studio is filled with many other props and materials. 

On the table are pens, brushes, charcoal pencils, and a woodcut depicting the head of an old man. Several plaster casts hang from a shelf that supports a sculpture of an ox, the symbol of Saint Luke, the patron saint of painters. A plaster putto is suspended from the ceiling in front of a tapestry, which is draped to reveal an easel with a painting and a violin hung on the wall. In the foreground a stretched canvas leans on a chest heaped with a bound album and a carpet. Objects related to the traditional theme of vanitas (vanity), a frequent subject of Dutch still lifes, are piled in the lower right corner. These items–a laurel wreath, a skull, wine, a fur muff, a book, a lute, and a pipe–remind viewers of the brevity of life and fame.”

Getty Museum

Resources/References:

• Jan Steen: Wikipedia
• The Drawing Lesson: Getty Museum Collection

About My Outfit

There are so many details and points of interest in this painting that I literally didn’t know where to begin. So I didn’t begin. Until the last minute. Which was yesterday when the temperature was soaring up in the range of about 3˚F (-17.8˚C).

I stepped into my closet room and hoped that my muse would answer when suddenly the tapestry in the painting reminded me of this forgotten long sleeved cotton dress that I found at Naturally Yours, an eco-friendly boutique, in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, back in 2017. The colors and the abstract print on the dress formed the best foundation to add lots of layers for this bitter cold. I wanted to incorporate some other colors and textures from the painting and my focus was mostly drawn to the young woman and her outfit.

My first thought was the yellow velvet duster that I styled for a previous Style Imitating Art post. The color and crushed velvet fabric resemble the young woman’s skirt and I liked the look a lot. But then I spotted this cozy rose color rib knit duster that I had quite forgotten about as well. It was actually marketed as a sleep or lounge cardigan, but I like it as a fun topper piece for any outfit. The pink color pays tribute to the woman’s pink top. I liked the pink duster equally as much as the yellow one and I simply could not decide which one to wear. So I wore both, thereby solving two dilemmas at once…which duster to wear and which coat to wear. I didn’t need a coat at all with my double duster layering! And I could represent the two dominant colors of the young woman’s outfit. I added a scarf and wore my hair in a bun like the girl as well. And my horn necklace is meant to represent all the marble and plaster casts in the drawing room. Tall brown lace up boots seemed appropriate for both the style and the weather.

I was really happy with the end result. I struggle with creating flowy bohemian looks for super cold weather. It’s very easy to cross the town line into Frumpville when you do that. However, sometimes it’s just warmer in the Village of Frump so I don’t mind visiting every now and then. Perhaps this look belongs somewhere Frumptown, but I still felt like it suits my aesthetic and adequately represents the artwork as well.

Let me know what you think!

Be sure to check out Terri’s interpretation of the artwork as well as Salazar’s take on it. And please visit Terri on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, to see her review post of outfit submissions. If you want to participate, you still have time! Terri needs your photos by Tuesday, January 17, 2023, at 10:00 p.m. EST to be featured in her post. 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress-Naturally Yours / Velvet Duster-Target / Pink Duster-Torrid / Necklace-Traveling Chic Boutique / Boots-ShoeDazzle / Earrings, Gloves, and Tights-Old