Lovers in a Landscape

This late composition of 1674—among Steen's final works, as he died in 1679—shows two figures in an outdoor landscape setting in an intimate encounter. The theme of lovers in an outdoor setting had a long tradition in Dutch and Flemish painting from the arcadian pastoral tradition, and Steen's treatment is unusual in combining the pastoral landscape with his own genre sensibility. The late date suggests Steen was broadening his range in his final years, revisiting landscape subjects from earlier in his career.

The two figures are set against an open landscape with the sky and distance providing an atmospheric backdrop. Natural outdoor light illuminates the scene with the evenness of an overcast day rather than the dramatic indoor chiaroscuro of Steen's interior scenes. The figures' interaction is the compositional focus, with landscape subordinated to their relationship.