The Night Watch
A group portrait of an Amsterdam civic guard company. Instead of lining the men up in a row, Rembrandt had them break into movement. The name came later, once the varnish had darkened – the scene takes place in daylight.
The small, brightly lit girl in the centre carries the guard’s emblem, a chicken with claws.
The Night Watch is more accurately titled something like The Company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. It was painted in 1642 for the new hall of the arquebusiers’ guild in Amsterdam, the Kloveniersdoelen. The guild was a civic guard, part of the city’s defence that also had social functions. The members probably each paid to be included in the picture, with the most prominent paying more. The painting is almost four metres high and more than four metres wide.
Group portraits of civic guards were common in Holland. Usually the men sat or stood in rows, so that every face was equally visible. Rembrandt chose to show the company in motion, as if they were just setting off. The captain in black with a red sash gives an order to the lieutenant in yellow. Around them men load their muskets, a drummer beats his drum and a dog barks. The result is full of life and unexpected detail, but some members are barely visible.
In the middle of the picture is a small, brightly lit girl. From her belt hangs a dead chicken with its claws displayed. The claws were the guild’s emblem, so the girl has been interpreted as a kind of living symbol of the company. There are several other symbolic details, and many have been interpreted in different ways.
Rembrandt used light to guide the eye and create depth. Some figures are lit up, while others disappear into shadow. The painting was never a night scene. The varnish darkened over time, and in the 18th century it acquired the name The Night Watch. When it was cleaned in the 1940s, the colours turned out to be much brighter.
In 1715 the painting was moved to Amsterdam’s town hall. It was too large for the wall and was therefore cut down on all sides, most of all on the left, where two figures were lost. We know what it looked like thanks to a smaller copy by Gerrit Lundens. A shield bearing the names of the company’s members was added only after the picture had been painted.
The Night Watch has been attacked several times, including with a knife in 1975 and with acid in 1990. The damage has been repaired. During the Second World War it was rolled up and hidden. Since 2019 a major research and restoration project has been under way at the Rijksmuseum, where visitors can watch the work. Using computers, the cut-off sections have been reconstructed and temporarily displayed.
It has often been claimed that the patrons were dissatisfied and that the painting led to Rembrandt’s financial ruin. There is no firm evidence for this; his difficulties later in life had other causes. The Night Watch is today the most famous painting in the Netherlands and hangs in a gallery of its own at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It draws millions of visitors every year.