The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), oil on canvas, 1642

Rembrandt’s largest, most famous canvas was made for the Arquebusiers guild hall. This was one of several halls of Amsterdam’s civic guard, the city’s militia and police. Rembrandt was the first to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something. The captain, dressed in black, is telling his lieutenant to start the company marching. The guardsmen are getting into formation. Rembrandt used the light to focus on particular details, like the captain’s gesturing hand and the young girl in the background. She was the company mascot.

Artwork typepainting
Object numberSK-C-5
Dimensionsheight 379.5 cm x width 453.5 cm x weight 337 kg x weight 170 kg
Physical characteristicsolieverf op doek

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The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq

Identification

Title(s)
- Officers and other civic guardsmen of District II in Amsterdam, under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as ‘The Night Watch’
- The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq
- The company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as 'The nightwatch'
Former title
The company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as 'The nightwatch'
Object type
Object number
SK-C-5
Inscriptions / marks
- signature and date: ‘Rembrandt f 1642’
- inscription: ‘Frans Banning Cocq, heer van purmerlant en Ilpendam, Capiteijn Willem van Ruijtenburch van Vlaerdingen, heer van Vlaerdingen, Lu[ij]tenant, Jan Visscher Cornelisen Vaendrich, Rombout Kemp Sergeant, Reijnier Engelen Sergeant, Barent Harmansen, Jan Adriaensen Keyser, Elbert Willemsen, Jan Clasen Leydeckers, Jan Ockersen, Jan Pietersen bronchorst, Harman Iacobsen wormskerck, Jacob Dircksen de Roy, Jan vander heede, Walich Schellingwou, Jan brugman, Claes van Cruysbergen, Paulus Schoonhoven’
Description
Rembrandt’s largest, most famous canvas was made for the Arquebusiers guild hall. This was one of several halls of Amsterdam’s civic guard, the city’s militia and police. Rembrandt was the first to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something. The captain, dressed in black, is telling his lieutenant to start the company marching. The guardsmen are getting into formation. Rembrandt used the light to focus on particular details, like the captain’s gesturing hand and the young girl in the background. She was the company mascot.
Catalogue reference
C. Grimm, 'Handschrift, schildertechniek en beeldstructuur. Bijdrage tot het onderzoek naar toeschrijving, I: de helmen van Rembrandt', Tableau (1982/83), p. 246-248, afb. 5.

Creation

Creation
painter: Rembrandt van Rijn, Amsterdam
Dating
1642
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Material and technique

Physcial description
olieverf op doek
Material
Dimensions
height 379.5 cm x width 453.5 cm x weight 337 kg x weight 170 kg

This work is about

Person
Subject
Place

Acquisition and rights

Credit line
On loan from the City of Amsterdam
Ownership
Copyright
Public domain
Provenance
Commissioned by or for the sitters for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen (the headquarters of the arquebusiers´ civic guard), Amsterdam; first mentioned in the Kloveniersdoelen, 1653: 'Ibid. daer naast aanvolgen. Frans Benning Cock Capn. en Witt van Ruijtenburg Lut. geschildert van Rembrand an 1642.';{Schaep 1653, p. 135, no. 4.} transferred to the Small Council of War Chamber (Kleine Krijgsraadkamer) in the Town Hall on Dam square, Amsterdam, 1715 {SAA, Archief van de Thesaurieren Ordinaris, Resolutieboek 28 October 1711-28 January 1723, 23 May 1715: 'Is geordonneert, omme het groote Stuk Schilderij van Rembrandts hangende op de Saal van de Colveniersdoelen Schoon te maken, en als dan hetzelve te Plaetsen op de Kreygsraats Kamer van het Stadhuys'. First published in Dyserinck 1890, p. 245.} transferred to the house of Cornelis Sebille Roos (the 'Trippenhuis'), 29 Kloveniersburgwal, Amsterdam, 1808;{See Brugmans 1913, p. 60.} on loan to the museum from the City of Amsterdam since 1808

Documentation

- C. Grimm, 'Handschrift, schildertechniek en beeldstructuur. Bijdrage tot het onderzoek naar toeschrijving, I: de helmen van Rembrandt', Tableau (1982/83), p. 246-248, afb. 5.
- O. Pacht, 'Rembrandt', Munchen 1991, p. 19-30 + ill.
- J.A. Overhoff, 'The Night Watch Odyssey' (the painting during WWII) , http://www.cacciucco.nl/english/the_night_watch_odyssey.html [2017]
- J.A. Overhoff, 'De Nachtwacht op zwerftocht' (het schilderij ten tijde van WO II), http://www.cacciucco.nl/artikelen/kunst/de_nachtwacht_op_zwerftocht.html [2016]
- J.B. Bedaux, 'Een achttiende eeuwse kunsttheoretische discussie', Kunstlicht 15 (1985), p. 25-28.
- The Rembrandt Database, Object information, Rembrandt, Civic guardsmen of Amsterdam under command of Banninck Cocq, dated 1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-C-5, http://www.rembrandtdatabase.org/Rembrandt/painting/3063/civic-guardsmen-of-amsterdam-under-command-of-banninck-cocq, accessed 2016 February 01
- H. Günther, 'Damals oder heute unverstanden. Zum Problem von Rembrandts Nachtwache', Welkunst 50 (1980), p. 1848-1850 + afb.
- J. Boomgaard, 'De Verloren Zoon. Rembrandt en de Nederlandse Kunstgeschiedenisbeschrijving', Kunstreeks (1995).
- 'Omtrents Rembrandts Nachtwacht', Kunstkrant Rijksmuseum Amsterdam nr. 1 (1998), p. 14-20.
- M. Rayssac, 'l'Exode des Musées, Histoire des oeuvres d'art sous l'Occupation', Parijs 2007.
- P. Taylor, 'Darkness at Noon. Rembrandts Nachtwacht', Kunstschrift 6 (1994), p. 22-27 + afb.
- K.M. Groen, 'Earth Matters, The origin of the material used for the preparation of the Nightwatch and many other canvases in Rembrandt's workshop after 1640', Art Matters, volume 3, p. 138.
- K. Clark, 'What is a masterpiece?', Portfolio. The Magazine of the Visual Arts, 2 (1980), p. 51 + afb.
- Inzoomer object op zaal, 2013 (Nederlands/English).
- Fieke Tissink, 'Hoofdstuk uit het Rijksmuseum', Rijksmuseum Kunstkrant 19 (1993) nr. 3, p. 14-18.
- Chr. White, 'Rembrandt', Den Haag 1964, p. 65, 66 + afb.
- E. Runia. A. van Suchtelen, Rembrandt, Den Haag 2006, p. 14.
- U. Schumacher, 'Gruppenporträt und Genrebild. Zur Deutung der Photographie fur die franzosische Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Giessener Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 4 (1979), p. 29, afb. 11.
- H. Gerson, 'De Nachtwacht', Openbaar Kunstbezit, 10e jaargang, januari (1966).
- A.K. Wheelock, 'The Age of Rembrandt', Studies in seventeenth Century Dutch Painting (The Pennsylvania State University, 1988), p. 215, 223 (afb.).
- H. van Os, in: Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum nr. 4 (1996), p. 309-320 + afb.
- E. van de Wetering, 'Ontrouw aan Rembrandt', Kunstschrift (Openbaar Kunstbezit) (1982), p. 166-167, 171, afb. 24-26.
- A. Jensen Adams, Public Faces and Private Identities in Seventeenth-Century Holland, Portraiture and the Production of Community, New York 2009, p. 211-217, fig. 60.
- Y. van Veelen, 'Work in progress. De strijd om de Nachtwacht', Kunstbeeld nr. 12/1 (dec. 2004/jan. 2005), p. 44-47.
- A.J. Moes-Veth, 'De Nachtwacht en haar oude copieen', Oud Holland LXII (1947), p. 188.
- A.J. Moes-Veth, 'Rembrandt's Claudius Civilis en de Nachtwacht van terzijde beschouwd, Oud Holland LXXV (1960), p. 143.
- M.M. Toth-Ubbens, 'De barbier van Amsterdam. Aantekeningen over de relaties tussen het Waaggebouw en de Schouwburg in de zeventiende eeuw', Antiek 10 (1975), p. 388, afb. 12.