A Soldier of the Leiden Civic Guard with an Arms Still-Life

The cavernous background gives an immediate impression of a ship’s hold but there is all the detail of a still-life in the carefully painted armour, drum, saddle and guns seen in what must be an arsenal. It is only the figure of the officer with his plumed headband which makes this a genre painting. Like most of Dou’s works this picture is quite lacking in incident. The man is no more than a carefully painted object included in the picture along with the rest of the contents of the store-room.