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Rembrandt · 1642
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Rembrandt turns a commissioned militia portrait into a company preparing to move. Captain Frans Banning Cocq gives the order, with his lieutenant beside him in yellow. Completed in 1642, the picture acquired its familiar title later; it does not depict a night scene.
Light picks the captain and lieutenant out of the surrounding company. Elsewhere, men ready their weapons in different ways. Compare these scattered actions with the strong light and shadow that gather them into one scene.
1642
Rijksmuseum
Nightwatch hall
Rembrandt was commissioned to paint a large group portrait of a civic militia company, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq, and broke from convention by showing its figures in action rather than lined up in static rows. The captain gives his lieutenant the order for the company to march out.
The militiamen are shown armed with pikes, muskets and halberds, in various stages of readiness: cleaning, loading and checking their weapons. A dog appears at the edge of the company.
The surviving canvas measures about 363 by 437 centimetres. Its scale lets the moving militia fill a public hall.
The Night Watch is a later title. The painting itself does not show a night scene.
Made for the militia’s Kloveniersdoelen hall, the painting moved to the Amsterdam Town Hall in 1715. It now belongs to the Rijksmuseum.
1642. Rembrandt completes the militia portrait later called The Night Watch, made to hang in the Kloveniersdoelen, the militia's great hall.
1715. The painting is moved to the Amsterdam Town Hall.
The portrait now belongs to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Bold contrasts of light against deep shadow. Rembrandt used it to turn a routine group portrait into a dramatic scene, letting light itself pull the eye toward small details scattered across the crowded canvas.
