Dancing Peasants before an Inn

The painting shows a lively group of peasants dancing in a courtyard before a thatched inn, with bystanders, a dog, and a barrel in the foreground and a distant church spire on the horizon. The central movement is framed by the left-hand thatched building and an overhanging canopy of trees, creating a diagonal flow that leads the eye to the dancers. The palette is warm and earthy—ochres, browns, and greens—punctuated by the colorful clothing of the figures, all rendered in the detailed, narrative genre style characteristic of Jan Steen from the Dutch Golden Age.