Jan Steen (Leiden 1626-1679) 'Easy Come, Easy Go': the artist eating oysters in an interior signed and dated 'Jan Steen. / 1660' (lower left) oil on canvas 41.3/4 x 53.1/8 in. (106.1 x 134.7 cm.) in a carved giltwood frame, presumably commissioned by the 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1807 creation), circa 1810 PROVENANCE: Seger Tierens, The Hague; his sale (+), The Hague, 23 July 1743, lot 175 (420 florins). with Gerard Hoet (1698-1760), The Hague, from whom acquired for 275 florins by Willem Lormier (1682-1758), The Hague; his sale (+), Francken, The Hague, 4 July 1763, lot 251 (950 florins to Pieter Fouquet, on behalf of the following) Captain William Baillie, acting through John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute for his son-in-law, Sir James Lowther, 6th Bt., later 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1736-1802), who made payments to Baillie through Lord Bute on 23 August and 8 September 1763 totaling £1,800, and by inheritance to his third cousin, Sir William Lowther, 2nd Bt., and 2nd Viscount Lowther, later 1st Earl of Lonsdale (2nd creation, 1807), Lowther Castle, where recorded in the Breakfast Room (East Wall), in inventories of 1825 ('A Catalogue of Pictures at Lowther Castle' [Lowther Manuscript], as 'Oyster Room'), and 1879 ('Catalogue of Pictures, Statuary &c., at Lowther Castle' [Lowther Manuscript], no. 247, as 'The Oyster Repast with portrait of himself'), and subsequently by descent at Lowther Castle to the latter's great-great-great-grandson James, 7th Earl of Lonsdale. LITERATURE: G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt, benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, The Hague, 1752, p. 109, no. 175. W. Lormier, Catalogus van Schilderyen van den Heer Agent Willem Lormier, The Hague, 1752[?], p. 25, no. 263. J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., London, VI, 1833, p. 2, no. 3; and IX (supplement), 1842, p. 475, no. 5. G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, III, London, 1854-1856, p. 262, 'In point of humour, power and transparency, careful and spirited treatment, one of the finest specimens of the master. A view through the door, with a gentleman and a lady, approaches Peter de Hooge in transparency'. T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen: Étude sur l'art en Hollande, The Hague, 1856, p. 128, no. 127. C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., London, I, 1908, p. 232-3, no. 856, 'one of the finest works of Steen'. A. Bredius, Jan Steen, Amsterdam, 1927, no. 37. T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, 'De Schoorsteenontwerpen van I. Barbet en hun invloed in Nederland', Oud Holland, LII, 1935, pp. 262-6, fig. 1. C.W. de Groot, Jan Steen: Beeld en Woord, Utrecht, 1952, pp. 113 and 121. W. Martin, Jan Steen, Amsterdam, 1954, pp. 38 and 79, no. 856, pl. 24. R. Keyszelitz, 'Zur Deutung von Jan Steens ''Soo Gewonnen, Soo Verteert''', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, XXII, 1959, pp. 40-5. E. de Jongh, ed., Tot Lering en Vermaak, exhibition catalogue, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1976, pp. 102-3, under no. 20, fig. 20b. K. Braun, Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen, Rotterdam, 1980, pp. 100-1, no. 114, illustrated. P.C. Sutton, ed., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, 1984, pp. 309-10, under no. 103, fig. 1, note 1, erroneously as 'formerly' in the collection of the Earl of Lonsdale. H.P. Chapman, W.T. Kloek and A.K. Wheelock, Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller, exhibition catalogue, Washington and Amsterdam, 1996, pp.146-8, under no. 15, fig. 1. M. Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth- Century, Zwolle, 1997, p. 40, note 1. J. Giltaij, ed., Senses and Sins: Dutch Painters of Daily Life in the Seventeenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, published Ostfildern- Ruit, 2004, p. 198, under no. 53, fig. 1, erroneously as 'formerly' in the collection of the Earls of Lonsdale. P. Biesboer and M. Sitt, eds., Vergnüliches Leben - Verbogene Lust: Holländische Gesellschaftsszenen von Frans Hals bis Jan Steen, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle, 2004, p. 208, under no. 54, note 1. W. Kloek, Jan Steen (1626-1679), Amsterdam, 2005, p. 60, figs. 60 and 62. London, British Institution, 1818, no. 118. The Hague, Mauritshuis, Jan Steen, 20 December 1958-15 February 1959, no. 14. EXHIBITED London, Christie's and Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Treasures of the North, 2000, no. 32. Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, on loan, 2010-2012. GUIDE PRICE: £5,000,000 .