A painting a day · No. 10 of 38
The Night Watch
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
1642 · Oil on canvas · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The story
A group portrait of an Amsterdam civic militia company, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Group portraits usually lined people up in rows. Rembrandt painted them moving out, mid-action. It is not a night scene: later layers of darkened varnish gave it the name.
Look closer
- The girl lit in gold carries a dead chicken at her waist. Its claws were the company's emblem.
- The captain's hand casts a shadow on his lieutenant's yellow coat.
- Count the people: many of the 34 faces are only half visible.
Did you know
In 1715 it was cut down on all four sides to fit a wall in Amsterdam's town hall. Two figures on the left were lost. Since 2019 the Rijksmuseum has been restoring it in a glass room, in public view.
Why we can show it
Rembrandt van Rijn died in 1669. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1740. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.