Pieter Cornelisz vanSlingelandt(Leiden 1640 – 1691 Leiden)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
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Pieter van Slingelandt was baptized in the Hooglandse Kerk in Leiden on 4 November 1640. He was theeldest son of the mason Cornelis Pietersz van Slingelandt and Trijntje van Polanen, a cobbler’s daughter.[1]The painter came from a milieu of craftsmen: one of his uncles was also a mason, and another one a cloth
shearer.[2] Pieter’s father was not without means.[3] Pieter was the only one of his nine siblings who nevermarried, and he probably lived at home with his parents until 1678.
Thanks to the Leiden chronicler Simon van Leeuwen we know the identity of Van Slingelandt’s teacher.
Writing about “den vermaarden Gerrit Douw” (“the renowned Gerrit Dou”) in his city description of 1672, he
noted that the master “does not hide [his art] from any of his pupils who have talent, as can be seen fromthe stellar rise and flourishing progress of Frans van Mieris and Pieter van Slingelandt, who because of their
excellence are expected to equal and possibly surpass their master.”[4] According to Arnold Houbraken,
Van Slingelandt did eclipse his teacher, although some reservations can be detected in his final conclusion.
He had seen paintings “that in terms of elaboration and refinement transcend those by his master; yet there
are also some which, having received the same treatment, are somewhat stiff. Still, he was a great artisticlight.”[5] The painter, by whom signed portraits from 1653 and 1656 are known,[6] entered the Leiden Guildof Saint Luke in 1661 and paid his annual dues with a few interludes until 1681.[7] He was a prominent guild
member and served as headman and dean in 1690 and in 1691.
Van Slingelandt’s portraits and genre paintings emulate Gerrit Dou’s (1613–75) style, and, like his master,his pictures commanded high prices. In 1663, when he had only just begun to work independently, theFrench diplomat Balthasar de Monconys complained in his travel journal that Van Slingelandt had charged
him 400 guilders for a small painting.[8] He was not the only one who balked at paying Van Slingelandt’ssteep prices. Between 1678 and 1680 the painter waged a notorious court case against the heirs ofFrancois Meerman (1630–72), who was in his lifetime the secretary of Leiden. They refused to pay VanSlingelandt 1,500 guilders for a modest-sized family portrait that had been agreed upon with the secretary
more than ten years earlier.[9] According to Houbraken, Van Slingelandt worked on this 1668 portrait forthree years, which is confirmed by the existing testimony.[10] Contributing to the high price will undoubtedly© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt
Page 2 of 6

have been the many changes Meerman had Van Slingelandt make to the painting. Moreover, his laborious
work method will have played a role as well: Houbraken “had been told in all truth” that while working on
this portrait, Van Slingelandt had spent “a month or six weeks painting a jabot with lace.”[11] Incidentally, theasking price seems to have been disputed only by the patrons. Pieter’s brother-in-law, a bargeman
operating regularly to and from Utrecht, testified that on a boat trip to Bodegraven several years before hisdeath, Gerrit Dou had confided to him that Van Slingelandt “had been greatly wronged by Mr. Meerman”
and “the virtuoso manner in which he had portrayed the eldest of the two children alone was worth one
thousand guilders and that it was exceptionally skillfully painted.”[12] The long, drawn-out conflict was finallysettled in 1680, when the Court of Holland largely ruled against Meerman’s heirs, ordering them to pay thepainter 1,200 guilders.
From the testimony, moreover, it emerges that Van Slingelandt’s workshop was thriving around 1670. The
Mennonite cloth merchant Cornelis van Houck recalled the case of Meerman’s portrait well because it had
greatly delayed the completion of his own likeness and that of his wife and his niece/cousin. The merchantalso cancelled a commission on behalf of another patron who felt that the painter was too caught up in theMeerman portrait affair. Van Houck ultimately received his portraits, which were listed in his estate in
1684.[13] He must have had a special bond with the painter, for he ordered other works and, moreover, VanHouck and the painter Johannes Hannot (1633–84)—the same person who in 1665 rented a room to Johande Bye to display his Dou collection[14]—stood surety for Van Slingelandt during his lawsuit against
Meerman’s heirs.[15]Several dozen portraits by Van Slingelandt are known, only a few subjects of which can be identified.
Among them are various members of the Van Musschenbroek family, including the brothers Samuel(1639–82) and Johan (1660–1707), who were successful scientific instrument makers.[16] Johan Hulshout,secretary of the Rhineland Hoogheemraadschap, and his wife Anna Splinter also found their way to theartist’s workshop.[17] Van Slingelandt, therefore, was not lacking in patrons. However, his extant oeuvre isrelatively small. This can be explained by his slow work method, which was also detrimental to his income;according to Houbraken, “his time-consuming manner of working earned [him] more fame than money.”[18]Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt died on 7 November 1691 and was buried in the Hooglandse Kerk
between 10 and 16 November.[19]-Piet Bakker

Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt
Page 3 of 61. According to Arnold Houbraken, the painter was born on the Oude Vest in Leiden on 20October 1640. A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders enschilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam,1980), 3:126. His year of birth was thought to be incorrect on the basis of the 1653 portraits ofJan Hubrecht and his wife Anna Ghijs (both in a private collection, see Cornelis Hofstede deGroot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith , 8 vols. [London, 1907–27], translatedfromBeschreibendesundkritischesVerzeichnis

derWerkederhervorragendsten

holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts , 10 vols. [Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28], 5, 482,
nos. 132 and 133 and a self-portrait from 1656 (Paris, Musée du Louvre). See Karla Langedijk,“Notities betreffende zelfportretten van Pieter van Slingeland,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 10(1962): 88. The discovery of a formerly unknown notarial document makes it possible toreconstruct the entire family of the mason Cornelis Pieters and establish that the “Pieter”
baptized as the son of “Cornelis Pieters” on 4 November 1640 was, indeed, the painter. RAL,NA not. M. van Schade, inv. 1222, deed 94, 27 April 1681, see also note 3 of this biography.
2. Three of his seven sisters married bargemen and two married tailors. His brother Jacob
became a grocer and his first wife Sara Leopoldus was a daughter of Arent Leopoldus, thefounder of a family of successful house painters.
3. As the heirs of their parents, the children were assessed over a capital of 8,000 guilders in theTwo-Hundredth Penny Tax in 1674. The core of this estate constituted nine houses, three of
which formed a single unit on the Oude Singel. This unit was the parents’ residence, andpresumably Pieter, who remained a bachelor, lived there until at least 1678, as this was hisaddress when he witnessed the marriage of his younger brother Bartholomeus. In 1681, thehouses were divided among the ten children, and Pieter, his then single brother Jacob, and their
two underage sisters, were allocated six houses on the Havenstraat near the Zijlpoort, just astone’s throw from his parents’ house. For this document, see note 1 of this biography.
4. “[Zijn kunst] voor geen van syne opkwekelingen, die van eenige geest sijn, verborgen houd,als te sien is in de uytstekende opkomst ende bloeyende voortgank van Frans van Mieris, ende
Pieter van Slingeland, in welkers uytmuntendheid te verwagten is dat sy haar Meester gelijk
werden, ende waar het mogelijk te boven sullen gaan.” S. van Leeuwen,Korte Besgryving Van
het Lugdunum Batavorum Nu Leyden (Leiden, 1672), 191–92.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt
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5. “Die in uitvoerigheit en gepolystheit boven die van zyn Meester uitstaken; maar dit is er van
dat dezelve door zulk doen wel wat styver zyn. Doch is hy een groot licht in de Konst geweest.”
Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen ,3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 126–27.
6. See endnote 1 of this biography.
7. That Van Slingelandt paid his dues intermittently between 1669 and 1672 and stopped
completely as of 1680 does not imply that he lived outside of Leiden from time to time. In theseyears, membership fees were often collected on an irregular basis. For the quality of theadministration of the Guild of Saint Luke, see Piet Bakker, “Crisis? Welke crisis? Kanttekeningenbij de economische neergang van de schilderkunst in Leiden na 1660,” De Zeventiende Eeuw
27 (2011): 232–70.
8. Eric J. Sluijter et al., Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge
1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 205.
9. Francois Meerman and His Family , 1668, oil on panel, 53 x 44.5 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
For the identification of this portrait and the lawsuit between the family and the painter, see R. E.
O. Ekkart, “Het portret van de familie Meerman door Pieter van Slingelandt,” inDe Arte et Libris.
Festschrift Erasmus, 1934–1984, ed. A. Horodisch (Amsterdam, 1984), 69–75.
10. Abraham Bredius, “Een schildersproces in de XVIIe eeuw,” Oud-Holland 57 (1940): 168–71.
11. “Was voor waarheid verhaalt” and “een maand of ses weken heeft zitten schilderen over een
bef met kant.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam,1980), 3:127.
12. “Door de Hr. Meerman seer grotelix wierde verongelyckt” and “dat de cunst die gedaen wasaen het conterfeytsen van de outste van de twee kinderen met duysent gulden alleen waerdich
was en dat het ongemeen cunstisch was geschildert.” Abraham Bredius, “Een schildersproces inde XVIIe eeuw,” Oud-Holland 57 (1940): 169. The witness, Gelein Jorisz van der Kaey, hadmarried Agnieta Cornelisdr van Slingelandt, the painter’s sister, in 1671.
13. RAL, NA not. L. van Overmeer, inv. 978, deed 125, 12 October 1684, with the following
entry: “2 conterfeytsels van de overledene en zijn eerste vrouw gedaen door Slingerlant” (twolikenesses of the deceased and his first wife done by Slingerlant).

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt
Page 5 of 6

14. See the biography of Gerrit Dou in this catalogue.
15. RAL, NA not. L. van Overmeer, inv. 978, deed 125, 12 October 1684, “2 ebbenhoute
kasjens van Slingerlant” (two ebony cases by Slingerlant); Abraham Bredius, “Eenschildersproces in de XVIIe eeuw,” Oud-Holland 57 (1940): 171. This will have been a reference
to two paintings in cases with painted doors similar to works by his master Gerrit Dou.
16. Among the known portraits is one of Johan Joosten van Musschenbroek and his wife Mariavan der Straaten (1659–1743) (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. 1981.133), presumably
painted in 1685, the year of their marriage. Two separate pendant portraits of the couple havebeen preserved; they are replicas of the portrait in Boston (both in a private collection). Van
Slingelandt also portrayed Johan’s brother Samuel in 1674 (private collection). Additionally, thepainter drew two miniature pendant portraits of this Samuel and his sister Sara (1647–1710)(whereabouts unknown). Listed in the 1872 estate inventory of Jan Tiberius Bodel Nijenhuis (seeTh. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg. Geschiedenis van een Leidse Gracht , 6vols., and index, [Leiden, 1992], 6:704) are two portraits “door Slingeland” (“by Slingeland”)
representing Samuel van Musschenbroek and “zijne echtgenoote” (“his wife”). The latter
identification is incorrect, however, for Samuel never married. On the Van Musschenbroek
family, see C. A. Crommelin, “Leidsche leden van het Geslacht Van Musschenbroek,” LeidsJaarboekje 31 (1939): 134–49.
17. Portrait of Johan Hulshout (1623–1687) , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 71.70
1871; and Portrait of Anna Splinter (1630–1694) , National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, inv. 267
1886.
18. “Won [hy] door zyne tydslytende wyze van schilderen meer roem als gelt aan.” Arnold
Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen , 3 vols.
(Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3:127.

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Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt
Page 6 of 619. For the date of death, A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche
konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753;
reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3:127: “Pieter Cornelis van Slingelandt, [wonend] op de Mare,”(“Pieter Cornelis van Slingelandt, [residing] at the Mare”) was buried in the Hooglandse Kerk
between 10 and 16 November. See also: K. Langedijk, “Notities betreffende zelfportretten vanPieter van Slingeland,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 10 (1962): 88. Eric J. Sluijter et al.,Leidse
fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden,
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 205, gives the correct reference, but the wrong
church (Pieterskerk). Judging from the address, Slingelandt had meanwhile moved in with hisbrother Jacob. On 17 November, a week after the burial of his brother, Jacob and Sara
Leopoldus, the daughter of a house painter, posted their banns.

Literature
Van Leeuwen, S. Korte Besgryving Van het Lugdunum Batavorum Nu Leyden. Leiden,1672, 191–92.
De Groot, Cornelis Hofstede. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. 8 vols.
London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke
der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28.
Bredius, Abraham. “Een schildersproces in de XVIIe eeuw.” Oud-Holland 57 (1940):
168–71.
Langedijk, Karla. “Notities betreffende zelfportretten van Pieter van Slingeland.”Bulletin vanhet Rijksmuseum 10 (1962).
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders enschilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980.
Ekkart, R.E. O. “Het portret van de familie Meerman door Pieter van Slingelandt.” InDe Arteet Libris. Festschrift Erasmus, 1934–1984.

Edited by A. Horodisch. Amsterdam, 1984,69–75.
Sluijter, Eric J. et al. Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge
1630–1760. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 1988.
Nijenhuis, Jan Tiberius Bodel. See Th. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al. Het Rapenburg.
Geschiedenis van een Leidse Gracht. 6 vols. and index. Leiden, 1992.
Bakker, Piet. “Crisis? Welke crisis? Kanttekeningen bij de economische neergang van deschilderkunst in Leiden na 1660.” De Zeventiende Eeuw 27 (2011): 232–70.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection