'As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young'

Jan Steen's 'As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young' from around 1665 illustrates the Dutch proverb warning that children learn bad behavior from their elders. The painting shows a multi-generational family party where adults teach a young boy to smoke a pipe, while other signs of excess—wine, music, and general revelry—fill the scene. Steen's moralizing genre paintings embedded serious social commentary within scenes of infectious good humor, making him one of the most popular Dutch painters among eighteenth-century collectors.

The composition cascades with narrative detail, each figure and object contributing to the proverbial message. Steen's warm palette and lively brushwork capture the animated expressions and gestures of the revelers with characteristic verve and observational precision.