Why Is The Night Watch So Famous? Rembrandt's Masterpiece That Isn't Set at Night

The Night Watch is famous because Rembrandt took a type of picture that was usually stiff and formal, a group portrait of a civic militia company, and turned it into a dramatic scene full of movement, light and shadow. Painted in 1642 at the height of the Dutch Golden Age, it is one of the most famous paintings of that era and the best-known work displayed in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. And the title is a mistake: the painting does not show a night scene at all. Its size helps too. At 363 by 437 centimetres, it fills a wall.

Why is it called The Night Watch if it isn't night?

For much of its history, the painting was covered with a dark varnish that made it look like a night scene, and that impression gave it the name people still use. The varnish was only removed in the 1940s. Its full title is much longer: Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq.

So the most famous "night" painting in Europe is actually a daytime scene that got dirty. That small irony is part of its fame: once you know it, you never look at the dark background the same way.

Who are the people in the painting?

The scene shows the militia company setting out, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, dressed in black with a red sash, and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch, dressed in yellow with a white sash. Behind them the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen, carries the company's flag.

The painting was commissioned around 1639 by Banninck Cocq and seventeen members of his militia. Eighteen names appear on a shield in the background that was painted around 1715, and a hired drummer was added for free. In all, 34 characters appear in the picture. Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders, about one hundred from each person portrayed, which was a large sum at the time.

The mysterious girl with a chicken

The figure most visitors ask about is a small, glowing girl among the men. She carries a dead chicken on her belt. Rembrandt used her to include the traditional emblem of the arquebusiers, the militia's gunmen, and a kind of drinking horn used at their banquets. In other words, she is less a person than a living coat of arms, lit up so the company's identity shines in the middle of the scene.

Light, shadow and movement

Other militia portraits of the time lined people up so everyone could be clearly seen. Rembrandt did something riskier. He used tenebrism, strong contrasts of light and dark, to pick out the captain, the lieutenant and the girl, while other figures move, turn and half disappear in shadow. The result feels like a moment caught in motion rather than a pose held for a painter.

It was one of seven similar militia paintings commissioned from various artists at the time, meant for the banquet hall of the new Kloveniersdoelen, the musketeers' meeting hall in Amsterdam. The canvas was so large that it is thought Rembrandt finished it in a lean-to in his garden, because it did not fit in his studio.

The painting was cut down

In 1715 the painting was moved to Amsterdam's Town Hall and trimmed on all four sides, probably to fit between two columns, a common practice before the 19th century. Two characters on the left, the top of an arch, a balustrade and the edge of a step were lost, and the missing pieces have never been found. A 17th-century copy by Gerrit Lundens shows what the full composition looked like.

In 2021, the Rijksmuseum showed the painting with the lost edges recreated by artificial intelligence, based on Lundens's copy. The reconstruction revealed that the officers were originally off-centre, marching towards open space on the left, which gave the troops a stronger sense of movement.

Wars, knives and acid

The painting has survived a remarkable amount. At the start of the Second World War, in September 1939, it was taken off its frame, rolled around a cylinder and kept for four years in a special safe in caves near Maastricht. It has also been attacked several times. In 1911 a man tried to slash it with a shoemaker's knife, but the thick varnish protected it. In 1975 another man cut it with a bread knife, leaving zigzag slashes up to 30 centimetres long; restoration took four years. In 1990 acid was sprayed on it, but it only reached the varnish, and the painting was fully restored.

Operation Night Watch

In July 2019 the Rijksmuseum began a huge public restoration, called Operation Night Watch, inside a glass room in the gallery, with the work livestreamed for anyone to watch. Scientists found a compound in the paint layers, lead(II) formate, that had not been seen before in historical oil paintings, and a curator noticed that the dog in the painting seems to be based on an illustration by Adriaen van de Venne. In 2020 the museum published a 44.8-gigapixel image built from 528 photographs, so anyone can zoom in on the brushwork online.

How famous is it, really?

The film director Peter Greenaway once ranked it as the fourth most famous painting in the Western world, after the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It has inspired music from Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony to a King Crimson song. Not bad for a group photo of local volunteers.

Learn with The Night Watch: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
a misnomer	a wrong or misleading name	"The Night Watch" is a misnomer.
in the spotlight	receiving the most attention	The girl in the painting is in the spotlight.
to steal the show	to attract more attention than anyone else	The little girl steals the show.
larger than life	very impressive or dramatic	Rembrandt made the militia look larger than life.
to bring something to light	to reveal something hidden	The restoration brought new details to light.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a famous picture or photo, using "to steal the show" and "a misnomer".