Portrait of Bernardina Margriet van Raesfelt, also known as 'The Chicken Yard'

Jan Steen’s Portrait of Bernardina Margriet van Raesfelt, also called The Chicken Yard, presents a courtyard scene with the young girl seated center foreground in a pale dress, surrounded by chickens, ducks, and other birds. Two men flank her with baskets, while a peacock sits in a barren tree and an arched doorway behind opens onto a distant landscape with a stately building, creating depth and a sense of narrative. The painting uses warm, earthy tones, detailed textures, and naturalistic figures characteristic of Steen’s lively Dutch Golden Age genre style.