Children Teaching a Cat to Dance

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Children Teaching a Cat to Dance, Known as ‘The Dancing Lesson’
Artist	Jan Steen
Year	c.1660–1679
Medium	oil paint, panel
Dimensions	68.5 cm (27.0 in) × 59 cm (23 in)
Location	Rijksmuseum, Netherlands
Owner	Jacobus Salomon Hendrik van de Poll
Accession No.	SK-A-718
Identifiers	RKDimages ID: 6390 Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur ID (deprecated): 20186081
[edit on Wikidata]

Children Teaching a Cat to Dance or The Dancing Lesson is an oil-on-panel genre painting by Jan Steen, executed c.1660–1679 and now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The painting depicts a group of children attempting to make a cat dance to the music of a shawm. The cat is screeching and the dog barking but the children are having fun. However, the old man at the window clearly disapproves of their behaviour.

The work is a typical example of Steen's indoor scenes of everyday Dutch life.