Wine is a Mocker

Jan Steen's Wine is a Mocker from 1668, now at the Norton Simon Museum, takes its title from Proverbs 20:1 and depicts a woman who has succumbed to drink, slumping in her chair while children pilfer her purse. The painting exemplifies Steen's method of embedding biblical and proverbial wisdom within scenes of contemporary Dutch life, creating paintings that function simultaneously as entertainment and moral instruction. Steen's comic genius lies in making the viewer complicit in the very pleasures the painting warns against.

The composition builds a narrative around the sleeping woman, with every detail—the spilled wine, the rifled purse, the children's sly expressions—contributing to the moral fable. Steen's warm palette and fluid brushwork create an appealing surface that counterpoints the painting's cautionary message.