As the old sing, so pipe the young

As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young (1656) illustrates a Flemish proverb made famous by Jan Steen's multiple treatments of the same theme — that children learn their habits, good and bad, from their elders. Metsu's version situates the proverb in a domestic musical scene: adults sing or play while children imitate them, and the moralizing point about the transmission of behavior across generations is made through observed musical participation. That Metsu painted a subject closely associated with Steen in the same period demonstrates the extent to which Amsterdam's genre painters engaged in productive competition and dialogue with shared themes. The work's provenance through Gebruder Douwes, the Amsterdam dealers, places it in the tradition of quality Dutch genre works passing through the trade.

Canvas with warm domestic lighting capturing the communal atmosphere of a family musical scene. Multiple figures of different ages allow Metsu to demonstrate his range in differentiating character through physical type and expression — children, adults, and elderly figures all handled with specific observational accuracy.