Molenaer was born and died in
Haarlem. He achieved a style close to
Hals' early on in his career, but later developed a style like that of Dutch genre painter,
Adriaen van Ostade. His genre works often depicted players of music, such as his
The Music Makers (
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest),
The Duet (
Seattle Art Museum), or
Family Making Music (
Frans Hals Museum). He also depicted
Taverns and the activities of card games or games of the times such as
La main chaude, or in Dutch, '''', which literally means clapping hands. Molenaer also cleverly depicted biblical stories in his own time and surroundings, such as representing a scene from
Peter's Gospel set in a Dutch Tavern in
The Denying of Peter (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest). ==Selected works==