ooks at her with an expression of
concern. The painting of the woman's right hand which she holds to her
breast is delightful and so is the clear half-tone of her face. An
attractive one-figure composition, also in the Rijks Museum, is "_Die
Scheuermagd_," a scullery maid scouring a metal pitcher on the top of a
cask. The discriminations of texture in this picture, the wood and metal
surfaces, the cotton of the woman's blouse, the rather coarse skin of
her bared arms and the more delicate texture of her full throat, are
especially noteworthy. Several compositions in which two or three
figures are grouped are variations of one theme, an invalid visited by
her physician. In several instances the title, the rather lackadaisical
expression of the lady, and the significant glances of her companions,
indicate that love-sickness is the malady. The color in these pictures
is usually beautiful and the types are cleverly differentiated, the
entire story becoming apparent to the spectator by particularities of
gesture and feature, neither exaggerated nor emphasized unduly, but
acutely observed and rendered at their precise value in the
expressiveness of the whole. A very fine example of these
"_Doktorbilder_" is in the collection of the New York Historical
Society. The doctor is bleeding his patient, and there are several
people in the room. The rich costumes are distinguished by the
indescribable blond yellows and silvery blues that make Steen's color
harmonies at their best singularly delicate and blithe.

Among the compositions in which many figures in a complicated
environment tax the artist's technical skill to the utmost, are several
representations of the bean feast, that saturnalia of Germany, upon
which abundant eating and drinking are in order. One of the most
beautiful of these pictures is in the Cassel Gallery. Steen himself,
portly and flushed, sits at the table, grimacing good-naturedly at the
racket assailing his ears. His handsome wife is in the foreground, her
large free gesture and unrestrained pose bringing out the opulent beauty
of her form draped in shining silken stuffs. Her face, turned toward
the little urchin who has found the bean in the cake and thus won the
right to wear a paper crown as king of the revels, is dimpled with
smiles. The two children are babyish in figure and expression and the
little dog is more serious than is his wont upon these occasions. A
couple of men are making a din with bits of b