SLINGELAND, Pieter Cornelisz. van
It was during the 1660s, the decade immediately following his tenure in Dou’s studio - he presumably studied with the master during the late 1650s - that van Slingeland produced his best work. Like Dou, and undoubtedly inspired by him (and by the impetus of the art market), van Slingelandt painted numerous images of domestic virtue which feature meticulously painted interiors filled with a profusion of household motifs. Van Slingelandt’s use of chiaroscuro and the general disposition of space are analogous as well.
Van Slingeland specialised in small genre paintings which owe a debt to Dou, Quiringh van Brekelenkam and Frans van Mieris, as well as small, jewel-like portraits which often have a genre element in the detailed description of interiors or gardens. Like Dou, he sometimes places his compositions within an arch. Van Slingeland’s work appealed to refined Dutch taste of the second half of the seventeenth century and commanded high prices in his lifetime.
Van Slingeland became a member of the Leiden guild of St Luke in 1661. He was an officer in 1684 and 1690 and was elected dean in 1691, the year of his death. His work is represented in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden; the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; the Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden and the Louvre, Paris.
