The Night Watch

The story of The Night Watch

A captain in black with a red sash steps forward giving an order, his lieutenant in pale gold at his side, and behind them a whole militia company breaks into motion: a drummer, a man loading a musket, pikes going up, a dog barking, and a small girl in gold with a chicken hanging from her belt, lit as if she were the point of the whole thing. Rembrandt painted it in 1642 for the Amsterdam civic guard, who had expected a row of tidy portraits and got a stage play instead. It is at the Rijksmuseum, in a hall built for it, and it was never a night scene; the title came from centuries of darkened varnish.

On a wall, this is a big, warm, dark painting with a spotlight in it. The dominant colors are deep brown and black, the captain's crimson sash, the lieutenant's buttery gold, and the girl's glowing dress. It suits a dining room, a study, a den, an entry hall, or a home bar, and it fits traditional, old-world, dark-wood, and club-room interiors. It is a nearly square image with dozens of faces, so it wants size. The Extra Large at 44.3 × 36 in is the one that lets you read the crowd; the Large at 29.5 × 24 in is right above a sideboard, and the Medium at 19.7 × 16 in works above a desk.

Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is his other great group portrait, The Jewish Bride is his tenderest late work, and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is the same drama in a boat. More from Rembrandt.

Printed in our studio from the Rijksmuseum's open-access photograph of the canvas, taken after cleaning, so the daylight Rembrandt actually painted shows through.