the night watch essay

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The Night Watch

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• UEN Digital Press with Pressbooks - Renaissance Through Contemporary Art History - The Night Watch
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The Night Watch , painting by Rembrandt van Rijn completed in 1642.

The Night Watch , formally known as Militia Company of District II Under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (the painting’s simpler, widely known title, first recorded in 1797, was erroneously given to it due to its thick, dark yellow varnish), is ostensibly a genre scene out of the 17th-century Dutch Baroque. Commissioned in 1640 and painted in 1642, at the height of Rembrandt’s career, this colossal painting, at 12.4 × 14.9 feet (379.5 × 453.5 cm), is a commissioned group portrait of a militia company, the civic guard, charged with preventing attacks on Amsterdam . Such portraits traditionally depicted their members in neat rows or at a banquet. Rembrandt’s version, however, makes the prosaic subject into a dynamic work of art; with its masterful chiaroscuro and dramatic action, the conventions of traditional portraiture are overturned.

The Night Watch depicts the captain of the guard as he leads his yellow-clad lieutenant as they round up the uniformed ranks. Only 18 of the 34 characters in the scene are portraits of actual people; the remaining figures are symbolic, such as the young girl in yellow, who is the allegorical emblem of the guard. The illusionism and the sense of theatricality and movement in the painting are enforced by the choreography of gestures, glances, muskets, and banners and by the building up of pigment in the foreground that flattens as the perspective recedes. The painting was originally even larger, but it was cut down in 1715 to fit through the doors in Amsterdam’s town hall, where it was once housed, and those missing pieces have never been found. By mixing charged symbolism—for example, the chicken in the middle of the action, playing on the name Cocq—and reality as well as action and allegory , Rembrandt takes a subject steeped in tradition and creates a masterpiece transcending time and genre.

The Night Watch is to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam what the Mona Lisa is to the Louvre in Paris, drawing huge numbers of visitors each year. It has enjoyed pride of place in the museum’s Gallery of Honour from the moment the Rijksmuseum opened in 1885, barring the years of World War II , when it was hidden in a coastal bunker and, later, in the caves of St. Pietersburg in Maastricht .

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Europe 1300 - 1800

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A night watch?

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Home — Essay Samples — Information Science and Technology — Watch — A Study of the Night Watch, Artwork by Rembrandt Van Rijn

A Study of The Night Watch, Artwork by Rembrandt Van Rijn

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Published: Jan 15, 2019

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“The Night Watch”

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Night Watch

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Rembrandt's Night Watch was painted for a commission he received at the height of his career, and dates from 1542.

The Night Watch are about to march, out of the dark gateway and into the light. That's a stunning way to envision the militia, and through it Rembrandt suggests the emergence of the Dutch nation, and even, perhaps, a broader human message of hope.

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A-Level: Rembrandt, The Night Watch

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch (Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq) , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

A night watch?

Would it surprise you to find that the title that Rembrandt’s most famous painting is known by is actually incorrect?  The so-called Night Watch is not a night scene at all; it actually takes place during the day.  This title, which was not given by the artist, was first applied at the end of the 18th century.  By that time the painting had darkened considerably through the accumulation of many layers of dirt and varnish, giving the appearance that the event takes place at night.

Rembrandt, Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh , known as the Night Watch , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands) A more accurate title, one that is in keeping with the naming of other contemporary portraits of this type is the “Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh.”

A view to Rembrandt’s Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (photo: Henk Bekker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Dutch civic guard

Rembrandt’s Night Watch is an example of a very specific type of painting that was exclusive to the Northern Netherlands, with the majority being commissioned in the city of Amsterdam.  It is a group portrait of a company of civic guardsmen. The primary purpose of these guardsmen was to serve as defenders of their cities.  As such, they were tasked with guarding gates, policing streets, putting out fires, and generally maintaining order throughout the city.  Additionally, they were an important presence at parades held for visiting royalty as well and other festive occasions.  Each company had its own guild hall as well as a shooting range where they could practice with the specific weapon associated with their group, either a longbow, a crossbow, or a firearm.  According to tradition, these assembly halls were decorated with group portraits of its most distinguished members, which served not only to record the likenesses of these citizens, but more importantly to assert the power and individuality of the city that they defended.  In short, these images helped promote a sense of pride and civic duty.

Captain and Lieutenant (detail), Rembrandt, Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh , known as the Night Watch , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Rembrandt was at the height of his career when he received the commission to paint the Night Watch for the Kloveniersdoelen , the guild hall that housed the Amsterdam civic guard company of arquebusiers, or musketeers.  This company was under the command of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, who holds a prominent position in the center foreground of the image (above left). He wears the formal black attire and white lace collar of the upper class, accented by a bold red sash across his chest. At his waist is a rapier and in his hand a baton, the latter of which identifies his military rank. Striding forward, he turns his head to the left and emphatically extends his free hand as he addresses his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburgh, who turns to acknowledge his orders.  He is also fancifully dressed, but in bright yellow, his military role referenced by the steel gorget he wears around his neck and the strongly foreshortened ceremonial partisan that he carries.  Sixteen additional portraits of members of this company are also included, with the names of all inscribed on a framed shield in the archway. As was common practice at the time, sitters paid a fee that was based on their prominence within the painting.

Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, Civic guards from the company of captain Jacob Backer and lieutenant Jacob Rogh , 1632 (Amsterdam Historical Museum)

Drummer (detail), Rembrandt, Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh , known as the Night Watch , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

A unique approach

Compared to other civic guard portraits, Rembrandt’s Night Watch stands out significantly in terms of its originality.  Rather than replicating the typical arrangement of boring rows of figures (see above), Rembrandt animates his portrait. Sitters perform specific actions that define their roles as militiamen.A great deal of energy is generated as these citizens spring to action in response to their captain’s command.  Indeed, the scene has the appearance of an actual historical event taking place although what we are truly witnessing is the creative genius of Rembrandt at work.

Men wearing bits of armor and varied helmets, arm themselves with an array of weapons before a massive, but imaginary archway that acts as a symbol of the city gate to be defended.  On the left, the standard bearer raises the troop banner while on the far right a group of men hold their pikes high.  In the left foreground, a young boy carrying a powder horn dashes off to collect more powder for the musketeers.  Opposite him, a drummer taps out a cadence while a dog barks enthusiastically at his feet.

Rembrandt’s self-portrait—just one eye and a beret? (detail), Rembrandt, Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh , known as the Night Watch , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

In addition to the eighteen paid portraits, Rembrandt introduced a number of extras to further animate the scene and allude to the much larger makeup of the company as a whole. Most of these figures are relegated to the background with their faces obscured or only partly visible. One, wearing a beret and peering up from behind the helmeted figure standing next to the standard bearer has even been identified as Rembrandt himself.

Three musketeers

While a number of different weapons are included in the painting, the most prominent weapon is the musket, the official weapon of the Kloveniers.  Three of the five musketeers are given a place of significance just behind the captain and lieutenant where they carry out in sequential order the basic steps involved in properly handling a musket.  First, on the left, a musketeer dressed all in red, charges his weapon by pouring powder into the muzzle. Next, a rather small figure wearing a helmet adorned with oak leaves fires his weapon to the right.  Finally, the man behind the lieutenant clears the pan by blowing off the residual powder (both the figure in a helmet with oak leaves and the man blowing off the powder are visible in the detail of the central figures above). In his rendering of these steps, it seems that Rembrandt was influenced by weapons manuals of the period.

Personification of the Kloveniers (detail), Rembrandt, Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh , known as the Night Watch , 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

A golden girl

Probably the most unusual feature is the mysterious girl who emerges from the darkness just behind the musketeer in red.  With flowing blond hair and a fanciful gold dress, the young girl in all her brilliance draws considerable attention. Her most curious attribute, however, is the large white chicken that hangs upside down from her waistband. The significance of this bird, particularly its claws, lies in its direct reference to the Kloveniers. Each guild had its own emblem and for the Kloveniers it was a golden claw on a blue field. The girl then is not a real person, but acts as a personification of the company.

Additional resources:

This painting at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt’s paintings on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

[flickr_tags user_id=”82032880@N00″ tags=”night watch,”]

More Smarthistory images…

Video transcript

[0:00] [music]

Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:04] We’re in the Rijksmuseum on an early Sunday morning, in order to avoid the crowds that gather in front of Rembrandt’s most famous work, in fact probably the most famous painting in the Netherlands. This is Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.”

Dr. Beth Harris: [0:17] It’s a group portrait. This is a type of painting that was very specific to the Dutch Republic in the 17th century.

Dr. Zucker: [0:24] This is a painting of one of the militia groups of Amsterdam. Now, militia groups were meant to defend the city, but by the time Rembrandt paints this, they were largely ceremonial.

Dr. Harris: [0:33] They took part in processions, parades, and festivities relating to the city. They symbolized civic pride.

Dr. Zucker: [0:41] In fact, one had to pay dues in order to be a member. It was always a leading citizen that would head it up.

Dr. Harris: [0:47] We’re looking at a group of elite citizens of Amsterdam. We should say, it was hung with other group portraits of militias in the hall where they would meet.

Dr. Zucker: [0:56] I think this probably really stood out.

Dr. Harris: [0:58] Look at how it stands out in this gallery.

Dr. Zucker: [1:00] Unlike earlier examples, which generally have a kind of even light and are very much like the kind of class portrait you would have in your grade school, here we have people who seem to be in the act of coalescing around an action.

Dr. Harris: [1:12] The captain is giving an order for the militia to gather and move forward, and he’s giving that order to his lieutenant. There is a sense in which the portrait function has been played down.

Dr. Zucker: [1:24] Rembrandt has decided to impose a hierarchy on the figures. In other words, in most group portraits there would be even light and there would be even attention to each face, and generally even handling of each figure.

[1:37] There may be figures that are placed in the foreground, figures that are placed in the background. In fact, there might be different prices that each of those sitters paid for that honor. But here, the two men in the foreground are clearly most important.

Dr. Harris: [1:48] They’re flooded with a beautiful Baroque light that’s so dramatic. In fact, the captain’s hand casts a stark shadow on the amazingly beautiful uniform worn by his lieutenant. Those fluctuations of light and dark do make this very different from a typical group portrait.

Dr. Zucker: [2:07] This is a Baroque painting, not only in the handling of light but also in the sense of the momentary, in the compositional diagonals that are defined by the spears that are held, by the banner on the upper left, activating the scene.

Dr. Harris: [2:20] Hals is also bringing that sense of informality and movement to the genre of the group portrait, but Rembrandt is engrossing us in a narrative.

Dr. Zucker: [2:29] For example, we see three moments in the use of a long gun. On the left, you see a man who’s loading his firearm. This is a precursor to the musket, actually, up to the rifle. In the center, you see somebody whose legs are bracing and is in the process of shooting. You can just make out the smoke from the barrel that gets a little bit confused with the rather smoky feathers of the lieutenant’s hat. Then, on the right side, you have somebody blowing out the used powder from his pan.

Dr. Harris: [2:55] Art historians believe that these images are in some part derived from a manual about using this kind of firearm. This was very much a source of pride for this militia group. This was their weapon. They practiced it in a field nearby and they’re shown using it.

[3:11] There’s so much else going on. [laughs] There’s a dog barking. There’s someone playing the drums. There’s someone raising the standard of the militia. There’s that girl striding forward who’s puzzled art historians for a while.

Dr. Zucker: [3:24] Actually, if you look closely, you can make out that there are two girls, one behind the other. The one that’s most evident, we think of as some kind of mascot.

[3:31] If you look closely in her beautiful dress, she’s got a dead chicken that’s been hung upside down from her belt. The claws [are] very prominent, and that refers to the name of this particular militia group.

Dr. Harris: [3:43] Here we are in this room filled with group portraits. I have to admit that when I look around at the Frans Hals, they’re beautifully painted, incredibly informal and lifelike, but I find myself caring less.

[3:54] I don’t know the people in the portrait. I can sort of put myself back and imagine the citizens of Amsterdam in the early 17th century who did know these figures, but somehow I find myself caring about the story and getting involved in the story of “The Night Watch.”

Dr. Zucker: [4:08] We can look at the Frans Hals and admire his brushwork, the innovations of his composition, the way in which he takes great risks in terms of this tradition of the group portrait. But Rembrandt transcends that category of painting and makes this something where we care about the figures even if we’ve lost their identity.

Dr. Harris: [4:24] With the Hals, they’re not filled with as much movement.

Dr. Zucker: [4:27] Rembrandt is bringing in the lessons of Caravaggio. He’s bringing in the lessons of the Italian Baroque. We have to remember that we’re seeing this painting differently than somebody in Rembrandt’s era would have seen it.

[4:37] For one thing, the painting was cut down when it was taken out of the militia hall. We’re seeing it not only having lost its top and its sides, but actually somewhat off-center.

Dr. Harris: [4:48] It would have been much more readable. There are two figures from the left that are missing, the very top of that arch and some architectural space above are missing.

Dr. Zucker: [4:56] The banner, for example, did not reach the top of the painting.

Dr. Harris: [4:59] It’s a little illegible to us for these reasons.

Dr. Zucker: [5:02] It’s also important to remember that the painting wasn’t originally called “The Night Watch.” It was much more specific and referred to the militia that it’s representing.

Dr. Harris: [5:10] And the captain who leads it.

Dr. Zucker: [5:11] It got that title in the 18th century, after the painting had darkened considerably and it was no longer evident that it was a daytime image.

Dr. Harris: [5:18] Although it is still dark, the figures do come out of that darkness in the tradition derived from Caravaggio.

Dr. Zucker: [5:24] It still comes out of that tenebristic tradition of the Italian Baroque and all of the mystery and drama that that imparts.

[5:31] There was another addition to the painting as well. If you look carefully, you see a large shield. That was actually added after most of these men had passed away, in order to remember who these men were.

Dr. Harris: [5:41] When you look toward this painting as you enter this gallery and you see the people standing in front, the painting is so lifelike that it almost looks as though the figures here are interacting with the people who are standing in front of it.

Dr. Zucker: [5:53] Look at the amazing foreshortening, for example, of the weapon that the lieutenant is holding, the way in which that moves into our space.

Dr. Harris: [5:59] Or the rifle held by the figure in red, or the captain’s hand that comes forward. There’s foreshortening everywhere as we move our eye across the canvas.

Dr. Zucker: [6:08] It really has to do with the separateness of each person’s involvement in what they’re doing and the way in which they’re all being called to order, that moment of transition. This is a painting that allows us to see that complex moment when people are moving from their individual thoughts into a formation. The galleries are already filling up. We’d better stop.

[6:26] [music]

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Rembrandt (1606–1669): paintings.

Man with a Magnifying Glass

Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn)

Woman with a Pink

Portrait of a Man

Man in a Turban

Portrait of a Young Woman with a Fan

Herman Doomer (ca. 1595–1650)

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer

The Standard Bearer (Floris Soop, 1604–1657)

• Self-Portrait

Hendrickje Stoffels (1626–1663)

Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse

Walter Liedtke Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2003

A prolific painter, draftsman, and etcher , Rembrandt van Rijn is usually regarded as the greatest artist of Holland’s “Golden Age.” He worked first in his native Leiden and, from 1632 onward, in Amsterdam, where he had studied briefly (ca. 1624) with the influential history painter Pieter Lastman. Rembrandt never went abroad, but he voraciously surveyed the work of Northern artists who had lived in Italy , like Lastman, the Utrecht painter Gerrit van Honthorst (Rembrandt’s main link to Caravaggio ), Anthony van Dyck , and—mostly through prints—Adam Elsheimer and Peter Paul Rubens . In the Leiden period, Rembrandt also responded strongly to earlier Netherlandish artists such as Lucas van Leyden (ca. 1494–1533). However, a crucial aspect of Rembrandt’s development was his intense study of people, objects, and their surroundings “ from life ,” as is obvious in paintings like his early self-portraits and the Saint Paul in Prison of 1627 (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart). Even by Dutch standards, Rembrandt’s preoccupation with direct observation was exceptional and continued throughout his career. Despite the constant evolution of his style, Rembrandt’s compelling descriptions of light, space, atmosphere, modeling, texture, and human situations may be traced back even from his late works (such as The Jewish Bride , Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) to the foundations of his Leiden years. It was also this program, in good part, that made Rembrandt a great teacher. His many pupils included Gerrit Dou, Govert Flinck, Ferdinand Bol, Nicolaes Maes, and Carel Fabritius.

In Amsterdam, Rembrandt became a prominent portraitist, attracting attention with dramatic compositions like The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632; Mauritshuis, The Hague). In securing commissions, the artist was assisted by the Mennonite art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh, whose cousin Saskia married Rembrandt in 1634. The Mennonites advocated personal interpretation of scripture, which probably influenced Rembrandt’s subjective and often moving treatment of biblical subjects. The artist became highly successful in the 1630s, when he had several pupils and assistants, started his own art collection, and lived the life of a cultivated gentleman, especially in the impressive residence he purchased in 1639 (now the Rembrandt House Museum). Rembrandt exudes confidence and urbanity in his Self-Portrait of 1640 (National Gallery, London), which was modeled upon courtly portraits by Raphael and Titian . These artists probably also inspired his Amsterdam signature, “Rembrandt” (dropping “Van Rijn”).

In the 1640s, Rembrandt’s frequently theatrical style of the previous decade gave way to a more contemplative manner, a mature example of which is Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653; 61.198 ). The change reflects period taste but also personal circumstances, such as Saskia’s death in 1642, financial problems, and the artist’s controversial relationship with his son’s nurse, Geertje Dircks, and then with his maidservant (and close companion) Hendrickje Stoffels. The great group portrait known as The Night Watch , dated 1642 (Rijksmuseum), could be said to mark the end of Rembrandt’s most successful years, but the legend that customer dissatisfaction ruined his reputation is refuted by later commissions from such prominent patrons as Jan Six and the Amsterdam city government. The extraordinary volume of Rembrandt’s production even after he declared insolvency in 1656 is punctuated by dozens of masterworks, like The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild (1662; Rijksmuseum).

The powers of invention and perception that made Rembrandt a famous painter in his own time also made him a virtuoso draftsman (as is evident in works as different as The Last Supper after Leonardo da Vinci and Cottage among Trees  [ 29.100.939 ]) and the most innovative printmaker of the seventeenth century. In about 350 etchings, he extended the medium’s capacity to suggest various kinds of illumination and painterly effects. Some examples, like The Three Crosses of 1653, were radically revised in design and expression between different states.

Rembrandt inspired numerous seventeenth-century Dutch and German painters, as well as eighteenth-century artists throughout Europe (for example, Fragonard and Tiepolo ) and a broad range of nineteenth-century realists. Many imitations were made in later periods, but the great majority of Rembrandtesque paintings that are not by the master date from his lifetime and suggest that his approach appealed to a fairly large audience, especially in Amsterdam.

Liedtke, Walter. “Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669): Paintings.” In  Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rmbt/hd_rmbt.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Liedtke, Walter. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. See on MetPublications

Liedtke, Walter A., and Hubertus von Sonnenburg. Rembrandt / Not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship . Exhibition catalogue. 2 vols. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. See on MetPublications

Schwartz, Gary. Rembrandt's Universe: His Art, His Life, His World . London: Thames & Hudson, 2006.

Westermann, Mariët. Rembrandt . London: Phaidon, 2000.

Additional Essays by Walter Liedtke

• Liedtke, Walter. “ Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) .” (October 2003)
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The Night Watch Rembrandt’s Masterpiece">What Makes The Night Watch Rembrandt’s Masterpiece

in Art , History | October 1st, 2018 1 Comment

When you think of Rem­brandt, do you think first of  The Philoso­pher in Med­i­ta­tion ? Or  The Syn­dics of the Drap­ers’ Guild ? How about  Anato­my Les­son of Dr. Nico­laes Tulp ? Those paint­ings may well come to mind, and oth­ers besides, but only one demands a great effort indeed  not to think of:  Mili­tia Com­pa­ny of Dis­trict II under the Com­mand of Cap­tain Frans Ban­ninck Cocq , bet­ter known as The Night Watch . Famous for the enor­mous dimen­sions that make its fig­ures near­ly life-size, and make the paint­ing a show­case for the artist’s mas­tery of shad­ow and light more ful­ly than any oth­er, it stands not just for Rem­brandt’s body of work but for the 17th cen­tu­ry’s Dutch Gold­en Age of paint­ing as well.

But what, exact­ly, makes  The Night Watch Rem­brandt’s mas­ter­piece? Wal­ter Ben­jamin once said that every great work either dis­solves a genre or founds a new one, but this paint­ing fits neat­ly in an estab­lished tra­di­tion: the civic guard por­trait, civic guards being the groups of wealthy cit­i­zens who pledged to defend a city should it come under threat. As Dutch paint­ing moved away from reli­gious sub­ject mat­ter toward com­mis­sioned por­trai­ture, civic guards made fine clients, pos­sessed as they were of both the desire and bud­get for large and expen­sive group scenes. But even with­in the genre, every­one involved must have sus­pect­ed that, when Ams­ter­dam may­or Frans Ban­ninck Cocq hired Rem­brandt van Rijn to paint him and his civic guard in the late 1630s, some­thing impres­sive would result.

“What hits me right away is the bal­ance that Rem­brandt strikes between chaos and uni­ty,” says Evan Puschak, the video essay­ist known as the Nerd­writer, in his analy­sis of  The Night Watch   above. “He clear­ly want­ed to cre­ate a can­vas with a lot of move­ment, but the chal­lenge was to make that move­ment — peo­ple lurch­ing in dif­fer­ent direc­tions, per­form­ing a vari­ety of actions — cohere into a uni­fied whole.” There­in lies the secret to  The Night Watch ’s tran­scen­dence of its genre, a tran­scen­dence achieved through a qual­i­ty we might now call dynamism. Rem­brandt also makes use of visu­al tech­niques more close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with cin­e­ma, such as a “depth of field” achieved by ren­der­ing Cocq and his lieu­tenant with the utmost clar­i­ty and grad­u­al­ly reduc­ing that clar­i­ty in the fig­ures behind.

As with any mas­ter­piece, the more you look at  The Night Watch , the more you notice. You may even start to sense a joke: “ The Night Watch is cap­tur­ing the moments before the com­pa­ny sets out to its col­lec­tive pur­pose,” says Puschak, “but the paint­ing almost makes us doubt that they’ll ever get there.” By the time of the paint­ing’s com­ple­tion in 1642, he notes, civic guards had less to do with actu­al defense than with cer­e­mo­ny, “and at a cer­tain point these com­pa­nies became clubs for men to play with their weapons and chip in with fan­cy group por­traits. It’s not incon­ceiv­able that Rem­brandt may have been secret­ly mak­ing fun of them.” Maybe mas­ter­piece sta­tus does­n’t absolute­ly neces­si­tate cre­at­ing or destroy­ing a genre. Nor, per­haps, does it absolute­ly demand a sense of humor, but sure­ly the works that have one, like  The Night Watch , stand a bet­ter chance of attain­ing it.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

300+ Etch­ings by Rem­brandt Now Free Online, Thanks to the Mor­gan Library & Muse­um

Late Rem­brandts Come to Life: Watch Ani­ma­tions of Paint­ings Now on Dis­play at the Rijksmu­se­um

A Final Wish: Ter­mi­nal­ly Ill Patients Vis­it Rembrandt’s Paint­ings in the Rijksmu­se­um One Last Time

Flash­mob Recre­ates Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” in a Dutch Shop­ping Mall

Sci­en­tists Cre­ate a New Rem­brandt Paint­ing, Using a 3D Print­er & Data Analy­sis of Rembrandt’s Body of Work

Based in Seoul,  Col­in Mar­shall  writes and broad­casts on cities and cul­ture. His projects include the book  The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les  and the video series  The City in Cin­e­ma . Fol­low him on Twit­ter at  @colinmarshall  or on  Face­boo k .

by Colin Marshall | Permalink | Comments (1) |

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Comments (1), 1 comment so far.

I’m afraid Evan Puschak miss­es one of the most impor­tant things: pieces of the paint­ing were cut off some years after it was paint­ed. (See wikipedia.) The painter Ger­rit Ludens in 1715 made a copy of the paint­ing just before these cuts were made. And on it you can see that the orig­i­nal com­po­si­tion added A LOT to the dynam­ics of the paint­ing by plac­ing the two main fig­ures some­what more out of the cen­ter of the paint­ing. The paint­ing as it is now where the two main char­ac­ters are almost com­plete­ly in the cen­ter is much more sta­t­ic than Rem­brandt orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed.

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The Night Watchman

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The Story Behind Rembrandt's The Night Watch

In 1642, Rembrandt van Rijn was commissioned by the mayor and civic guard leader of Amsterdam, Banning Cocq, to create a group portrait of his shooting company. The resulting painting is now recognised as one of the most important artworks ever created and currently hangs in a custom built room in the Rijksmuseum . Although there are 34 characters present on the canvas, only 16 were real-life members of militia and each of these men paid 100 Dutch guilders for their portrait. The two most senior officers, Captain Banning Cocq and his lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, stand at the front of the picture wearing a red sash and yellow hat respectively. Rembrandt painted the rest of the company as though they were preparing for patrol with several members inspecting their muskets and gesturing beyond the frame.

Rembrandt added several details to the painting in order to introduce symbols associated with the company and musketeers in general. The woman standing behind Banning Cocq, for example, is carrying the militia’s goblet while in the background an ensign waves the group’s flag.

At the time, it was quite common for civic guards or other military troops to commission group portraits that usually hung in their headquarters and many other Dutch masters such as Frans Hals created similar paintings..

Rembrandt’s painting though is among the largest of its kind and the subjects depicted on this massive canvas are almost life size. In fact, the composition was once considerably larger, but was cropped in 1715 after it was moved from its original fittings inside civic guard’s base in Amsterdam to the city’s town hall.

While today Rembrandt’s masterpiece is known as the Night Watch , it was originally untitled and was given its current name after it was covered in a dark varnish, which made the painting appear to take place after dark. Although this coating was removed in the 1940s, the painting is still primarily referred to as the Night Watch, but also bears the longer title Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq.

After moving between several locations from the 17th to 19th centuries (including the Royal Palace and Trippenhuis), the Night Watch was finally installed in the newly built Rijksmuseum in 1885.

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Story behind the Art: The Night Watch

Reading and comprehending the painting style and art can take time and effort. People rarely look at an artwork in the way it should be interpreted until the story behind it is told aloud. Renowned paintings must remain visible in the art and culture and be appreciated by all. The significance of such paintings must be spread across society for people to fully comprehend what the artist attempted to express to them about history, politics, lifestyle , and people. Isn’t it strange how the world’s most famous painting has been given a name that isn’t its name? The so-called Night Watch sequence does not take place at night; it takes place during the day.

The artist did not offer this title, but the public started regarding it as ‘The Night Watch’ towards the end of the 18th Century. The painting’s original title is officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh. The enormous canvas was commissioned to exhibit in the dining hall of Amsterdam’s Musketeers’ Meeting Hall (Kloveniersdoelen).

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch Baroque painter and printmaker regarded as one of the greatest storytellers in art history, with a remarkable skill to depict people in varied emotions and dramatic contexts. Rembrandt primarily produced portraits early in his career and continued to paint various artworks throughout. One-tenth of his painted and printed output is made up of studies of his face and more formal self-portraits, which has sparked much curiosity.

Rembrandt van Rijn’s ‘The Night Watch (1642) is considered one of the most iconic paintings. He was the first to capture the characters in a group portrait in action, with the city guardsmen taking up their positions in preparation for the march. Rembrandt’s Night Watch is an example of a particular form of painting that was only found in the Northern Netherlands , with most commissions coming from the city of Amsterdam . The idea behind this painting was to invoke a sense of pride and civic duty among the public. The key responsibility of these guardsmen was to protect their cities. ‘The Night Watch’ artwork is noteworthy for three key pillars: its magnificent size (12 feet by fourteen feet), the contrasting dramatic use of light and shadows, and the sense of movement in what would have traditionally been a stationary military group portrait. Simply put, they were in charge of safeguarding gates, patrolling streets, putting out fires, and generally keeping the city in order. Rather than the usual format of tedious rows of figures, Rembrandt animates his portrait.

Light And Shadow Play | The Night Watch

Rembrandt draws the viewer’s attention to three prominent individuals among the crowd, using effective use of sunlight and shade: the two men in the centre (from whom the painting receives its original title) and the woman in the centre-left background carrying a chicken who is vaguely named as ‘The Golden Girl’. The company’s colours are carried behind them by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen. The figures are nearly life-sized.

The painting represents a hierarchy using light and shadow . The militia’s essential positions are in solid shades and are illuminated, but the minor stations are in lower light and are darkened. Such stark contrasts of light and shade were unusual in 17th-century group portraits. A small detail that pinpoints the utility and beauty of light is the captain’s hand casts a shadow on the costume worn by Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. This indicates the direction from which the light falls in the painting.

Artwork can express far more than just color and form. It can portray emotions and ideas, tell stories, and even question and perplex. Only some things are instantly noticeable, and deciphering the actual meaning of any work might take time and effort. The “Night Watch” depicts such elements and concepts. While the scenario is not placed at sundown, the painting contains much meaning. One path to interpret is the concentration on minor details, how the strokes play a crucial role, the contrast of whites and blacks, and the actual significance behind each individual.

Behind the group of military men is Rembrandt himself, a man with only one eye visible and wearing a beret in the faint light. He dressed up as a member of the militia. He can be seen over Captain Banning Cocq’s right shoulder. Three of the five musketeers are given a significant position right behind the captain and lieutenant, performing the basic tasks necessary to handle a musket in sequential order properly. Rembrandt appears to have been influenced by weaponry guides of the time in his depiction of these steps.

The Golden Girl | The Night Watch

It might be very surprising to see a young girl placed in between the scene, painted with bright golden strokes. It must be confusing to figure out why the artist put him in the painting. The scene does not happen on a battlefield. Militias were primarily ceremonial and not functional. These described men have most likely never been in a genuine war throughout their life.

The young girl to the left and behind Banning Cocq, who is vaguely named “The Golden Girl’ serves as a visual mascot.  Adorned in a beautiful golden dress, she is depicted possessing the clan’s exquisite drinking horn and a dead chicken. The prominent claw is an emblem of the Musketeers, at her girdle. Behind this claw, which can be seen a type of pistol known as a ‘klover’. The dead chicken also depicts a defeated enemy. The ‘Kloveniers’, or Arquebusiers, and the girl is the company’s mascot.

On January 13, 1911, an impoverished navy cook slashed The Night Watch with a knife, apparently in protest of his unemployment . On September 14, 1975, a second knife attack happened, this time by a Dutch schoolteacher who believed destroying it was his holy duty. Following that, the picture was placed under constant surveillance. Yet, on April 6, 1990, a jobless Dutchman sprayed concentrated sulfuric acid on the artwork. Restorations could fix the damage each time, leaving a fight imprint barely.

The varnish coating got so thick over the years that it defended the canvas from a knife attack in 1911. In the 1940s, the varnish was removed, but the title remained. The painting was restored the last time in 1946-1947. The Rijksmuseum initiated the most extensive study and repair project on The Night Watch in July 2019. The picture has been relocated and is now displayed in the Gallery of Honour.

Citations: 

Online Sources: 

• Singulart Magazine. (2019).  Rembrandt’s Night Watch and The Dutch Golden Age . [online] Available at: https://blog.singulart.com/en/2019/10/11/rembrandts-night-watch-and-the-dutch-golden-age/ .
• Stanska, Z. (2020).  15 Things You May Not Know About The Night Watch by Rembrandt . [online] DailyArtMagazine.com – Art History Stories. Available at: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/15-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-night-watch-by-rembrandt/.
• ‌ Khan Academy. (n.d.).  Rembrandt, The Night Watch (article) . [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/baroque-art1/holland/a/rembrandt-the-night-watch .
• Google Arts & Culture. (n.d.).  The Night Watch . [online] Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/dALSivMco4xIJA .
• Wikipedia Contributors (2019).  The Night Watch . [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Watch.
• ‌ www.visual-arts-cork.com. (n.d.).  The Night Watch, Rembrandt: Analysis, Meaning . [online] Available at: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/night-watch.htm#evaluation [Accessed 18 Nov. 2022].
• VanGoYourself. (n.d.).  The Night Watch . [online] Available at: https://vangoyourself.com/paintings/the-night-watch/ . 
•  gohighbrow.com. (2015).  The Night Watch by Rembrandt | Highbrow . [online] Available at: https://gohighbrow.com/the-night-watch-by-rembrandt/ .
• van de Wetering, E. (2019). Rembrandt van Rijn | Biography, Paintings, & Facts. In:  Encyclopædia Britannica . [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rembrandt-van-Rijn.
• ‌Myers, N. (2019).  Symbolism . [online] Metmuseum.org. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symb/hd_symb.htm . 

An explorer at heart, Kasturi Kunte is on a journey to discover the diverse world of art, architecture, and technology. She is a young architect who believes architecture is about binding humans, nature, art and built spaces together. She is currently exploring the field of writing and researching Architecture.

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THE NIGHT WATCH

by Sarah Waters ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2006

A cut below this author’s superb earlier books, but very much worth reading.

Time runs backward, and memory tightens its grip on the variously involved characters of British author Waters’s unusual fourth novel—a departure from her highly praised historicals Tipping the Velvet (1999), Affinity (2000) and Fingersmith (2002).

It’s indeed a story of relationships, which begins in 1947 in a London rooming-house where sinister Mr. Leonard treats the afflicted using Christian Science principles, and from which boarder Kay Langrish, an ambulance driver during the recent war, wanders the streets seeking the woman she had loved and lost years ago. Waters skillfully draws us into the lives of those who orbit around these two figures: elderly Mr. Munday, and his dutiful young “nephew,” ex-convict Duncan Pearce; Duncan’s sister Vivian, stalled in a dingy relationship with her married lover; “Viv’s” business partner Helen Givner, with whom she operates a matchmaking concern; and Helen’s lover Julia Standing, a beautiful, self-possessed bestselling mystery novelist. We gradually learn how the death of Duncan’s lover Alec Planer had set Duncan on a course of self-destruction, and also how virtually all the novel’s women have at one time been involved with, yearned for and/or failed or betrayed one another. The strong emphasis on same-sex attraction threatens to reduce the book to something very like a manifesto. But Waters’s mastery of period detail carries the day, and the work is further distinguished by several brilliant sequences: Mr. Mundy’s slow, patient seduction of the helplessly vulnerable Duncan; Viv’s botched abortion, performed by a sublimely creepy back-street dentist; Helen’s panicked reaction to evidence of Julia’s infidelity; and Kay’s stoical labors during the Blitz, when she’s partnered with another young woman who will not be “the one” of whom she dreams.

Pub Date: March 23, 2006

ISBN: 1-59448-905-X

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005

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A LITTLE LIFE

by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015

The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

Yanagihara ( The People in the Trees , 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.  

Pub Date: March 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8

Page Count: 720

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015

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by Hanya Yanagihara

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen ) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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Who Are the Far-Right Groups Behind the U.K. Riots?

After a deadly stabbing at a children’s event in northwestern England, an array of online influencers, anti-Muslim extremists and fascist groups have stoked unrest, experts say.

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By Esther Bintliff and Eve Sampson

Esther Bintliff reported from London, and Eve Sampson from New York.

Violent unrest has erupted in several towns and cities in Britain in recent days, and further disorder broke out on Saturday as far-right agitators gathered in demonstrations around the country.

The violence has been driven by online disinformation and extremist right-wing groups intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s event in northwestern England, experts said.

A range of far-right factions and individuals, including neo-Nazis, violent soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, have promoted and taken part in the unrest, which has also been stoked by online influencers .

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to deploy additional police officers to crack down on the disorder. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand,” he said on Thursday. “It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Here is what we know about the unrest and some of those involved.

Where have riots taken place?

The first riot took place on Tuesday evening in Southport, a town in northwestern England, after a deadly stabbing attack the previous day at a children’s dance and yoga class. Three girls died of their injuries, and eight other children and two adults were wounded.

The suspect, Axel Rudakubana , was born in Britain, but in the hours after the attack, disinformation about his identity — including the false claim that he was an undocumented migrant — spread rapidly online . Far-right activists used messaging apps including Telegram and X to urge people to take to the streets.

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