by hearsay information from a painter, Carel de Moor, led this story-monger into much tittle-tattle about the artist’s reckless habits. To-day, by the best authorities, this view of Steen is discredited. It is, however, quite clear that he was often in desperate states; for example, in the February after his first wife’s death an apothecary seized his goods and sold his pictures to satisfy a debt of ten florins! But the reason was not idleness, for he was the most prolific painter of his day; it is to be found in the miserable price for which he had to sell his work. No wonder he tried to eke out his finances by keeping a brewery, which, by the way, was a privilege specially granted at that time only to a few families of particular respectability. As to the café, since he had to turn to trade, he naturally adopted the one with which his family had been connected; the disgrace, if there were any, not being his, but the public’s, who paid him better for drinks than for his pictures. So far as the dates on his pictures show, his period of production lasted for twenty-five years, from 1653 to 1678, so that his output averaged more than twenty pictures a year. The best period may probably be reckoned during the years from 1654 to 1669, which covered his second sojourn in Leyden and his visit to Haarlem. His family was growing up around him, and the children from year to year figure in his pictures, and his handsome wife, Margaret, appears as a center of kindliness and comfort, while his own person often adds the note of jollity. To these pleasant times belong the incomparable “family scenes”--_A Homely Scene_, _The Feast of St. Nicholas_, and _The Happy Family_ of the Rijks Museum; _The Christening Party_ of the Berlin Gallery; _While the Old Ones Sing the Young Ones Pipe_ of the Hague Gallery; and the Cassel Gallery’s _Twelfth Night_, where Margaret appears for the last time, since the picture was painted in the year of her death.