The Night Watch Is Not a Night Scene: Rembrandt's Painting Explained
Rembrandt's most famous painting shows a militia company in daylight, was cut down to fit a wall in 1715 and only got its name more than a century after it was painted.
The Night Watch is the centrepiece of the Rijksmuseum. Its familiar name, its shape and even its darkness are the result of what happened to it after Rembrandt finished it in 1642.
A militia company, 1642
Its full title is Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Rembrandt painted it in 1642 in oil on canvas for the Kloveniersdoelen, the hall of Amsterdam's civic guard; it measures 379.5 × 453.5 cm.1
How it got its name
The name Night Watch was first recorded in 1797, when darkened varnish made the scene look as if it took place at night.2 The Rijksmuseum notes that the painting has been known as the Nachtwacht since the late 18th century.1
Cut down in 1715
In 1715 the painting was moved to Amsterdam's town hall and cut down to fit the wall between two doors.2 Strips were removed from all four sides.3
A 17th-century copy by Gerrit Lundens shows what was lost. The researcher Robert Erdmann used artificial intelligence, trained on Rembrandt's painting and on that copy, to reconstruct the missing strips as part of the Rijksmuseum's research project Operation Night Watch, which began in 2019.3
A painting that survived
Since 1885 the painting has hung in the Gallery of Honour of the Rijksmuseum; during the Second World War it was hidden for safekeeping.2
Our video looks at the figures and the light; it is in English, with captions in several languages.
Sources
- 1Rembrandt van Rijn, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq ('The Night Watch'), SK-C-5. Rijksmuseum
- 2Night Watch (painting by Rembrandt). Encyclopaedia Britannica
- 3How AI Is Helping Preserve History. Smithsonian Magazine, 2021
