Jan Miense Molenaer

Jan Miense Molenaer: Studies with Frans Hals

Jan Miense Molenaer was born in Haarlem around 1610. Little is known about his life, with his childhood and youth completely obscure, but trained in the studio of Frans Hals (1580/83-1666) alongside Adriaen Brouwer (1605/06-1638) and Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685). He mainly painted genre scenes, often depicting musicians practising in their private chambers, at a house concert or in the musician's workshop. The artist depicted card players in the tavern or other social activities, but also painted biblical scenes, pragmatically placing the events in contemporary settings, such as Denial of St Peter, which was simply transposed to a Dutch inn. Jan Miense Molenaer increasingly distanced himself from the style of his teacher Hals, but his paintings show similarities with the style of Adriaen van Ostade. He later ran his own workshop and taught his own pupils, as well as earning a living as a property and art dealer.

Happy artistic marriage with Judith Leyster

Another important role model for Jan Miense Molenaer was the painter Judith Leyster (1609-1660), who was trained by Pieter de Grebber (1600-1653), but possibly received additional tuition from Frans Hals, whose daughter was her godchild. It may have been under this circumstance that Jan Miense Molenaer and the painter met, and married on 1st June 1636. The couple moved to Amsterdam and had four children: Johanna (born 1637), Jacobus (born 1639), Helena (born 1643) and Eva (born 1646). A fifth child, Constantijn, was born in Haarlem in 1648. Jan Miense Molenaer and Judith Leyster worked on each other's pictures and shared models and props. In addition, they both had a similar style of painting, which makes it difficult to clearly identify their pictures to this day. In 1659, both fell seriously ill, but while Jan Miense Molenaer recovered, Judith Leyster died on the farm they shared in Heemstede.

Jan Miense Molenaer died on 15th September 1668 in his birthplace and hometown of Haarlem.