Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' undergoes public makeover
July 8, 2019
Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has begun historic restoration work on Rembrandt's 17th-century masterpiece "The Night Watch." Curious visitors will be able to observe the entire process from behind a giant glass wall.
Image: picture-alliance/ANP/F. van den Bergh
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On Monday, experts at the Rijksmuseum got to work on the biggest-ever restoration of Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch.
The painting has undergone several restorations in the past. But this time, restorers will be working inside a specially designed glass chamber, allowing members of the public to watch. Their work will also be streamed live online.
"The Night Watch belongs to everyone," Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits told a press conference in Amsterdam. "We felt that the public has the right to see what happens to that painting."
The work last underwent major restoration in 1975 after a man slashed it with a knife. Parts of the canvas have since started to fade.
Researchers start scanning the surface of 'The Night Watch' Image: picture-alliance/ANP/F. van den Bergh
Painstaking process
The museum's researchers will begin by scanning and photographing every inch of the massive painting, which measures 3.63 by 4.37 meters (11.9 feet x 14.3 feet) and weighs 337 kilograms (742 pounds).
"This is the first time that we can actually make a full body scan and that we can discover which pigments he used not only through making little samples but with scanning the entire surface," Dibbits said.
"We don't know much about how Rembrandt made this painting," Dibbits added. "And now we hope to discover more."
Thousands of separate high-resolution photos taken from every angle will be merged to create one digital snapshot. Before embarking on the restoration, researchers will also use X-ray technology to analyze each layer.
A closer look at the Dutch Golden Age
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Golden Age master
Rembrandt is considered the greatest artist to emerge from the Dutch Golden Age of painting. Now one of his most famous works, The Night Watch was commissioned as a group portrait of an Amsterdam city militia.
More than 2 million people visit the Rijksmuseum, which houses the world's largest collection of Rembrandt's works, each year.
Friends and family: Rembrandt's social network
Considered by many to be one of the greatest painters in history, Rembrandt van Rijn relied heavily on the support of friends and family, who provided him with financial support and served as models for many works.
Image: Baltimore Museum of Art (The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection)
Portrait of Rembrandt by Jan Lievens (1629)
An old friend of Rembrandt's, Lievens captured the painter known for his impressive self-portraiture. The two artists, friends since childhood, shared a studio in Amsterdam until 1631, when Lievens began to travel for his career. Rembrandt, in contrast, never went abroad, although he is said to have been inspired by the Italian masters
Image: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Portrait of Saskia (1652-1654)
A growing middle class made portraiture a dominant style of the era, as their wealth and desire to be documented led to the commissions that supported artists. Rembrandt often used his brush to capture the likeness of family members, including his wife Saskia Uylenburgh. Her family made up a large part of his social and financial life.
Image: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen
Portrait of Arnold Tholinx (1656)
With marketing done mainly via word of mouth, Rembrandt had to rely on friends and collectors to drum up interest in his talent. It must have been his friend, the collector Jan Six, who led to this commission featuring the well-known physician, Arnold Tholinx. Six's brother-in-law, Tholinx was the focus of other works by Rembrandt, including a sketch that is part of the Rijksmuseum's collection.
Image: Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris
Light study with Hendrickje Stoffels as model (1659)
Hendrickje Stoffels moved in with the artist after the death of his wife, Saskia. After Rembrandt lost his house due to debts in 1658, his son, Titus, and Hendrickje banded together to sell the artist's paintings, a move that kept debt collectors at bay. Unable to marry Hendrickje without losing the inheritance Saskia left him, the couple simply lived together until her death in 1663.
Image: Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Portrait of Titus (1660)
While his son, Titus, seen here at 19, worked for his father throughout his life. It wasn’t until Rembrandt went bankrupt in 1656 that Titus, together with Hendrickje Stoffels, started a gallery of the artist's work to pay off creditors. The painting, on loan for the first time for an exhibition in Europe, reflects Rembrandt's approach to portraying family and friends: informal, personal, relaxed.
Image: Baltimore Museum of Art (The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection)
