Not much information is known about for whom in particular Steen made many of his paintings. One possible reason for this is that Steen was often forced to sell his works for low prices, which was the result of him receiving little attention from writers, and carrying a very small fan base in his time. Many of his paintings that were patron-based were portraitures. Steen being a genre painter at heart, puts this touch into these commissioned portraits, which makes them very easy to look over as just another genre painting. Steen was not picky on the type of customer he would take. Whether a respectable artisan or aristocratic if you were willing so was he. Some of the few known patrons are mentioned below.