Ariane van Suchtelen had a hunch. The longer she studied the centuries-old canvas, the more she was sure: This painting wasn’t a copy. The Mocking of Samson, thought to be an 18th-century reproduction, was an original by Dutch master Jan Steen.
Even if a copy, The Mocking of Samson was important. For years, it hung in Belgium’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts. Many artists hone their craft by copying masters like Rembrandt— Steen’s contemporary and countryman.
Today, painters still copy artists and artwork they admire. So long as a copy isn’t represented as the real deal, copying isn’t frowned upon in the art world.
Painter Jan Steen usually depicted scenes of everyday life: farming, dancing, housekeeping. His paintings reveal a knowledge of human nature and a sense of humor. In The Dancing Lesson, Steen shows four children teaching a cat to dance. Steen also produced paintings of Bible subjects, including Esther and Samson and Delilah.
Conservation experts at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, discovered the case of mistaken credit. While performing cleaning and restoration for the Royal Museum, Curator Ariane van Suchtelen noticed some unusual aspects of the “copied” painting. She suspected that the Samson painting might be an original Steen.
Further sleuthing ensued. First, researchers examined the back of the painting. They found a canvas stretched over its original strainer and tacked on with original nails. They also found holes for securing the canvas during painting and original string fragments.
Experts at the Mauritshuis had already been working with Shell Technology Center on a Partners in Science project. Scientists used a scanning electron microscope to determine the chemicals in Steen’s paint. They noticed that a certain green color showed up in many of Steen’s works. Upon examining The Mocking of Samson, researchers found the same green pigment—in the flagbearer’s sash. That green was rarely used any longer by the time the copy would have been made.
Green paint alone wasn’t enough to prove the painting was Steen’s. Experts also examined the ground (base) layer between the canvas and the paint. The ground composition in Samson matched the ground of Steen’s known works. The age and chemical makeup of the materials and paints led experts to conclude: The painting is older than previously thought. It is an original Steen.
Mauritshuis director Emilie Gordenker says The Mocking of Samson was probably painted in the 1670s, near the end of Steen’s life. But, she adds, “It’s as if the canvas is fresh out of Jan Steen’s studio!”
