Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch (c. 1665–70): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch (c. 1665–70) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (Dutch).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Held in the hand or displayed in a private domestic space, miniature portraits were designed for intimate viewing. The sitter holds a watch, often a symbol of mortality and the passage of time. Like his colleague Gerrit Dou, Slingelandt was one of the Leiden fijnschilders (fine painters), a group of artists whose paintings were internationally recognized for their extraordinary detail and precise technique.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch
• Date: c. 1665–70
• Creator attribution: Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt (Dutch)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 cm (3 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2017.105

A detail from the museum

The domed building in the background of this portrait is the Marekerk, one of Leiden's most distinctive architectural landmarks.

Collection credit

L. E. Holden Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.