Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt

Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (Oct 20, 1640 - Nov 7, 1691) was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter who had been a pupil of Gerard Dou and is known as one of Leiden's fijnschilders. He produced portraits, genres and still lifes, often in small format.

According to Houbraken, his teacher was Gerard Dou, who he imitated so well that many of his works were later misattributed to him. He was rather introverted and very methodical and conscientious, spending months on his works and striving for perfection. Houbraken especially liked a piece where a maid holds a mouse by the tail as a cat jumps for it.

The painter was not only a Gerrit Dou pupil but also a follower of his style, even in such a way that their work shows great similarities, such as by imaging figures under a nicely shaped stone arch and applying the clair obscure technique.

Like Dou, he was a perfectionist who often did for a long time completing a painting or even a part of it because of the detailed detail of the displayed items and fabrics. Painter and biographer Arnold Houbraken speaks in his work The Great Schouburgh of the Netherlandish art painters and paints great admiration for the painter's technique and patience. He says, "Yes, I am told that he has painted for a month or six weeks on a Bef with side," but also explains: "He won more fame as money through his much time-consuming painting ward. "

Van Slingelandt was born in October 1640 and baptized in the Leiden Hooglandse Kerk on 4 November 1640. According to the RKD he became a member of the Leiden Guild of St. Luke on November 22, 1661, he was enrolled as a member of the local Saint Lucas guild.

The painter died in Leiden on November 7, 1691.

Works:
Van Slingelandt was a leading representative of the Leiden Fine painters, in the company of other renowned representatives such as Frans van Mieris de Oudere, Willem van Mieris and Gabriël Metsu.

Houbraken wrote that Slingelandt took 3 years to paint a family portrait for the gentleman Mr. Meerman, and that he took 6 weeks to paint the lace of one child's bib. That painting currently hangs in the Louvre.

Van Slingelandt's work is located in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Museum De Laekenhal in Leiden and the Louvre in Paris.
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