After 2.5 years of in-depth research, the treatment of The Night Watch has officially started on Wednesday 19 January 2022. Structural treatment is necessary because deformations are present in the canvas, in particular in the upper left corner of the painting. These deformations are a sign that the tensioning of the canvas onto the wooden stretcher is unevenly distributed.
Flat on his belly
To facilitate the structural treatment The Night Watch has been put face-down onto a custom-made table. The painting will remain like this over the coming weeks. To be able to treat the deformations, the canvas has been removed from its wooden stretcher. This stretcher is not original, but dates from 1975, the year of the last lining. Fun fact: The Night Watch was attached to the wooden stretcher with a total of 564 tacks. In the coming weeks the conservators will be busy reducing the deformations in the canvas.
New tensioning system
After this, The Night Watch will be attached to a new aluminium strainer with the help of a tailor-made spring system. This system ensures that the tension in the canvas will be evenly distributed. The springs will be connected to sensors, to monitor the tension and - if necessary - to adjust it.
In the Rijksmuseum this method of tensioning was successfully applied in 2012 to two other large paintings: Dutch Landscape with Open Bridge by Jurriaan Andriessen from 1776 (BK-2011-42) and The Battle of Waterloo by Jan Willem Pieneman from 1824 (SK- A-1115) . With a width of more than eight meters, The Battle of Waterloo is even larger than The Night Watch; in fact it is the largest painting in the Rijksmuseum.
Retensioning of The Night Watch onto a new aluminium strainer will be carried out in collaboration with conservator Antonio Iaccarino Idelson (Equilibrarte). A specialist in this method of stretching paintings, he was also involved in the earlier applications of this method in the Rijksmuseum.