Rembrandt's "Night Watch "

This is one of the most famous and well-known paintings hanging in the Rijksmuseum and deserves a separate post. As usual, the more you learn about a painting, the more interesting it becomes. Rembrandt's masterpiece, the "Night Watch," his most famous--though not necessarily greatest--is a group portrait of a company of Amsterdam's militiamen, the city's civic guard. Rembrandt made the painting in 1642 at the age of 36 for their guild headquarters, the Kloveniersdoelen. It hung in the large assembly room, together with six other group portraits.

 

Standing in the foreground are Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (in black with a red sash) giving an order and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, focusing on the captain's every word. That Rembrandt depicted the militiamen in action is quite exceptional; until then, "sitters" in such group portraits were either standing or sitting stiffly next to one another.

The painting is full of action: flags waving, drums beating, the guardsmen (who, by the 1640s, were really only an honorary militia of rich bigwigs) spilling onto the street from under an arch in the back. It's "all for one and one for all" as the soldiers grab lances, load their muskets, and rush to Amsterdam's rescue.

Rembrandt used light to emphasize important details, such as the captain's hand gesture and the girl in the pale dress. She is probably the civic guard's mascot and is one of the figures Rembrandt added to animate the composition. The drummer at the far right and the boy running at the left were added for similar reasons.

The painting was a smashing success in its day. However, there are elements in it that show why Rembrandt soon fell out of favor as a portrait painter. He seemed to spend as much time painting the dwarf and the mysterious glowing girl with a chicken as he did the faces of his employers.

But Rembrandt caught the optimistic spirit of Holland in the 1600s. Its war of independence from Spain was heading to victory and the economy was booming. These guardsmen on the move epitomize the proud, independent, upwardly mobile Dutch. Compared with other, less famous group portraits, where every face is visible, well-lit, flat, and flashbulb-perfect, these people paid good money to have their faces preserved for posterity, and they wanted to be right up front. Other group portraits may be colorful, dignified works by a master...but not quite masterpieces. Rembrandt rousted the Civic Guards off their fat duffs. And by adding movement and depth to an otherwise static scene, he took posers and turned them into warriors--a simple portrait became great art.

Some other "Night Watch" scuttlebutt. First, "Night Watch" is a misnomer since it's a daytime scene. But over the years, as the preserving varnish darkened and layers of dirt built up, the sun set on this painting and it got its popular title. When the painting was moved in 1715 from the large hall of the Kloveniersdoelen to a smaller room in Amsterdam's town hall, three sides were lopped off so it would fit in between two doors in its new location! This resulted in putting the two main characters in the center and causing the work to become more static than intended. (Unfortunately, the pieces were lost.)



During WWII, when the Nazis where "shopping" for art throughout Europe, the painting was rolled up and hidden for five years. In 1975, a madman attacked it, slicing the captain's legs; and in 1990, it was sprayed with acid (skillfully restored after both incidents). Such a dramatic history.

Rembrandt's life darkened long before his "Night Watch" did. This work marked the peak of his popularity...and the beginning of his fall from grace. Free from the dictates of employers, he painted what he wanted and how he wanted. Rembrandt went beyond mere craftsmanship to probe into, and draw life from, the deepest wells of the human soul.

On our way out of the museum, a person is usually forced into the gift shop. This was a fun construction game for children based on the famous painting. But we didn't indulge in any retail therapy here today.

By the way, "Night Watch" is now back in its original position in this beautiful gallery at the center of the museum, exactly where architect Cuypers had originally placed it in 1885. And it is always surrounded by mobs of people.