The Son of a Brewer Jan Steen was born in Leiden, a bustling university town, into a well-to-do Catholic family. His father was a brewer who ran the Red Halbert tavern, a place where the sounds of laughter and debate were constant. This upbringing gave him an intimate view of Dutch life, from the boisterous energy of peasants to the structured domesticity of the middle class. He grew up surrounded by the sensory details of a working t…