Rembrandt – The Night Watch

The Night Watch is Rembrandt’s great group portrait of the Amsterdam civic guard, painted in 1642: Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, in black with a red sash, gives Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, in pale yellow, the signal to march, while around them the company gathers in light and shadow with muskets, pikes, a banner and a drum. The original, oil on canvas, is 379.5 cm high and 453.5 cm wide according to the museum and hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas in 7 sizes, from 120 x 98 to 246 x 197 cm, or to your own measurement, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.

The Night Watch – Rembrandt

What does The Night Watch show?

A group of armed men steps out of a dark passage under an arch. Two walk in front: Captain Frans Banninck Cocq in black, with a white lace collar and a red sash across his chest, and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch in pale yellow, with a white sash and a lance in his hand. The captain holds his left hand out towards us and speaks to his lieutenant. The Rijksmuseum sums up the scene simply: the captain is telling his lieutenant to start the company marching.

Around them the men are only now falling into line. On the left a man in red loads his musket; on the right a drummer beats a large drum and a dog barks at him. At the top left the ensign raises the banner, and pikes and halberds cross in the background. Among the guardsmen on the left stands a girl dressed in gold with a dead chicken at her waist, lit almost as brightly as the two officers. A shield beside the gateway on the right carries the names of the men portrayed.

Why is The Night Watch so famous?

Because it is a group portrait that does not look like one. Every Amsterdam militia company commissioned such pictures at the time, and the men usually stood or sat in a row, each face lit in the same way. The Rijksmuseum writes that Rembrandt was the first to paint the figures in a group portrait actually doing something: here the company is setting off, and nobody is posing.

The second reason is the light. Rembrandt uses it to choose what we see first – the captain’s gesturing hand, the lieutenant’s yellow costume, the girl in the background – and lets the other faces fall back into shadow. He painted the canvas for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, the headquarters of Amsterdam’s arquebusiers, and the museum now calls it his largest and most famous canvas.

What does the painting mean, and why is it called The Night Watch?

It is not night in the painting. According to the Rijksmuseum, the name Night Watch only took hold at the end of the eighteenth century, when a dark, yellowed varnish covered the canvas and turned a daytime scene into a nocturnal one. The official title speaks only of the officers and guardsmen of District II under Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.

The girl has a meaning of her own. The museum calls her the company mascot, and the chicken at her belt points to the claw, the emblem of the arquebusiers from which their guild took its name. So the painting is both a portrait of the men who paid for it and an image of the pride of citizens who guarded their own city. There is more on its history in the Wikipedia article on The Night Watch.

Where is the original today, and how did it get there?

The original is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which lists it under accession number SK-C-5 as a loan from the City of Amsterdam. According to the museum, the painting first hung in the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, moved to the Town Hall on Dam Square in 1715 and to the Trippenhuis in 1808, and has been on loan to the museum ever since.

When it moved to the Town Hall, the canvas was trimmed on all four sides to fit the room, and two figures disappeared from the left edge. A seventeenth-century copy by Gerrit Lundens shows how the composition looked before. During the Second World War the canvas was rolled up and hidden in caves near Maastricht, and since 2019 the museum has been studying and restoring it in a glass room in full view of visitors, in a project called Operation Night Watch.

The Night Watch or another Rembrandt – which should you choose?

The Night Watch is a painting for a large wall: even its smallest size is 120 x 98 cm. From the same museum comes The Jewish Bride, a tender double portrait from Rembrandt’s last years. For drama on the water there is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, the only seascape he painted. Quieter and more inward are Aristotle with a Bust of Homer and The Return of the Prodigal Son, one of his last large canvases.

All the famous Rembrandt paintings we make are gathered on our Rembrandt page. Choose The Night Watch if you want a scene full of people, movement and the glint of metal that fills a whole wall.

How is our hand-painted Night Watch made?

Our painters paint it by hand, with brushes and oil colours on canvas. First they transfer the composition – the two officers in front, the arch, the pikes, the banner and the drum – and check it against the original, because on such a crowded painting even a small shift shows at once. Then they lay a dark, warm ground and build up the figures in it step by step, from the background forwards.

The light comes last: the lieutenant’s yellow costume with its gold embroidery, the captain’s lace collar, the girl in gold and the gleam on helmets and musket barrels. It is made as a real oil painting, layer by layer, so the paint on it is not a flat surface. With dozens of faces and thousands of brushstrokes, this oil painting reproduction is among the most demanding we make.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 120 x 98 or 135 x 109 cm above a sofa, a chest of drawers or a dining table, 150 x 123 or 170 x 136 cm for a large living-room wall, and 190 x 153, 220 x 175 and 246 x 197 cm for staircases, entrance halls, offices and rooms with high ceilings.

There are 7 sizes (width x height): 120 x 98, 135 x 109, 150 x 123, 170 x 136, 190 x 153, 220 x 175 and 246 x 197 cm. The original is 453.5 cm wide, so our largest size is a little more than half its width. Because this canvas painting shows more than thirty figures, it needs some distance: as a painting for the living room it should take up about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it, which above a two-metre sofa means 135 x 109 or 150 x 123 cm.

For the largest sizes, think about whether to order it rolled, stretched or framed, because a stretched canvas of 246 x 197 cm has to get through doors and up the stairs before it reaches the wall.

What if I need a custom size or a frame?

If none of the 7 sizes fits, we paint The Night Watch in the width and height you set yourself; it is best to keep the proportions of the original, or the composition is shortened at the edge. Send us the dimensions you want and we will quote a price and a lead time.

We ship it the way you choose: rolled, stretched on a wooden stretcher bar or framed, and the stretching and framing are done in our workshop in Slovenia. You choose the frame in our 3D application, which shows every one of our profiles on this subject and is for choosing the frame only; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service. A dark gold moulding picks up the gold tones of the lieutenant’s costume, while a black or dark brown one deepens the shadows of the background.

How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?

We paint The Night Watch to order, so allow 15 to 45 working days. We ship it across the EU with no customs, protected for transport. Before it leaves, you receive a photograph of the finished painting and we correct anything that is not right; our returns policy applies to every order.

If it is a present and you do not know which size suits the recipient’s wall, choose a wall art voucher and let them pick the painting themselves.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original Night Watch?

In the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it has a gallery of its own. The painting belongs to the City of Amsterdam and has been on loan to the museum since 1808; its accession number is SK-C-5.

Who are the people in The Night Watch?

Officers and guardsmen of the Amsterdam civic guard of District II. In front are Captain Frans Banninck Cocq in black and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch in yellow, and behind them the ensign Jan Visscher Cornelisen with the banner. The names of the men portrayed are written on the shield beside the gateway.

Is The Night Watch really a night scene?

No. Rembrandt painted a daytime scene; a dark varnish that covered the canvas for a long time gave the impression of night, and the name Night Watch took hold, according to the Rijksmuseum, at the end of the eighteenth century.

Is your Night Watch a print?

No. Each one is a hand-painted copy in oil on canvas that a painter makes specially for your order. A print shows only a smooth surface; on ours you see real brushstrokes and layers of paint.

How big is the original Night Watch?

The Rijksmuseum gives 379.5 cm in height and 453.5 cm in width. The canvas was trimmed in 1715, so it was originally even larger. Our sizes run from 120 x 98 to 246 x 197 cm, and we paint others to measure.

Which size of The Night Watch suits a living room?

Above a sofa, 135 x 109 and 150 x 123 cm work best, because the faces are then large enough to recognise from the other end of the room. For a narrow wall or a low ceiling, choose 120 x 98 cm.

Is the original for sale?

No. The Night Watch belongs to the City of Amsterdam and is on loan to the Rijksmuseum, so it is not for sale and will not come to auction.

How high should I hang such a large painting?

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor. At 246 x 197 cm the bottom edge is then about 50 cm from the floor, so for the largest sizes it is better not to have tall furniture underneath.

• Subject: the Amsterdam civic guard of District II sets off under Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.
• Original: 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
• Ours: a Rembrandt reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 7 sizes from 120 x 98 to 246 x 197 cm or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: the title Night Watch is a later nickname – it is daytime in the painting, and only a dark varnish hid its light for so long.