It was painted around 1670. In the eighteenth century, it appeared as a work by Steen in the catalogue of an auction with the description: 'a piece daer Samson of the Philistines is bound, by Jan Steen, very good and raer of mind'. From the 1940s until 2018, it was seen as an 18th-century copy and attributed to Ignatius de Roore, and was examined and restored at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Experts there then determined that it was a genuine Jan Steen. The painting shows an underexposed side of Jan Steen, but does feature his humour, mockery, mayhem and wantonness in a folk scene. The work shows the biblical hero Samson at the moment when he has just been betrayed by Delilah, his hair cut off and he has been captured by the Philistines. In his hair was the strength of Samson and his curls now lie on the ground. Around Samson stands a howling crowd of harassers. Samson looks towards Delilah who taunts him by throwing coins into a jar with one hand, while her other hand makes an obscene gesture and she simultaneously allows herself to be groped by a lecherous man.
