Jan Miense Molenaer (1609/10 - 1668), A Flirting Couple

Jan Miense Molenaer
Dutch painter
Haarlem 1609/10 – 1668 Haarlem
A flirting couple
Oil on panel : 35,9 X 29,6 cm
Signed “molenaer” (barely legible) lower right, on the small stove on which the woman’s left foot rests
Frame : 46,4 X 40,4 cm

Our painting is recorded at the RKD, The Hague, number 343776 (May 2025, identification given by Ellis Dullaert): dating from the late 1640s or from the very start of the 1650s.Jan Miense Molenaer was an excellent painter of the ordinary behaviour of the lower social classes in taverns. According to Dennis Paul Weller, writer of the catalogue of the first monographic exhibition of Molenaer (in 2002), in Raleigh, at the North Carolina Museum, our painter tried circa 1650 to reach out to richer clients, which he exceptionally represented in just a few works from that period. Our painting is an excellent example of this effort.

But what the modern viewer does no longer see, was easy to identify for 17th century spectators: this is actually a brothel scene, a warning against bad behaviour for the respectable Dutch Calvinists. Behind the rich, well-dressed man Molenaer has painted a lute, a then common erotic element: the Dutch word “luit” was a slang term for vagina. It identifies many merry companies as brothel scenes.

All my paintings stand fully documented on my website:
https://www.jeanmoust.com/categories/portraits-genre-and-exterior-scenes/molenaer-jan-miense-2025/a-flirting-couple-5806857