Children Teaching a Cat to Dance, Known as The Dancing Lesson

• Children Teaching a Cat to Dance, Known as The Dancing Lesson
• Children teaching a cat to dance, known as 'The dancing lesson'

SK-A-718

signature: ‘JSteen’

These children are up to mischief: they are teaching a cat to dance to the music of a small shawm. Widely used between the 15th and 17th centuries, the shawm was the predecessor of the oboe. Mostly played in dance and ceremonial music, shawms were appreciated for their loud tone.

Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano, 'The Rijksmuseum to acquire and display the Han De Vries collection of oboes', CIMCIM Bulletin, Jan. 2019, p. 22-24, afb. 1

painter: Jan Havicksz. Steen

1660 - 1679

olieverf op paneel

height 68.5 cm x width 59 cm

Jonkheer J.S.H. van de Poll Bequest, Amsterdam

bequest 1880

Public domain

• Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano, 'The Rijksmuseum to acquire and display the Han De Vries collection of oboes', CIMCIM Bulletin, Jan. 2019, p. 22-24, afb. 1
• Bruce Haynes, 'Lully and the Rise of the Oboe as Seen in Works of Art', Early Music, jrg. 16, nr. 3 (aug. 1988), p. 324-338, afb. 4

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200107997