Nachtwacht
painting of a man enjoying Rembrandt's Night Watch
G. Boersma
acrylic on masonite
±35 1/2" x 35 1/2" or 90 x 90 cm
2025
The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings by Rembrandt and formally known as Militia Company of District II Under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. The painting’s simpler, widely known title was erroneously given to it due to its thick, dark yellow varnish, the painting does not depict a nocturnal scene.
Commissioned in 1640 and painted in 1642, at the height of Rembrandt’s career, this colossal painting 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.
All the best, Gerard
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