Rembrandt | The Night Watch
Rembrandt | The Night Watch
Want to see this artwork on your wall? Click here to use our free interior design service — fast and 100% free!
♡ Add to Wish List
- 100% hand-painted oil on canvas
- Delivered Framed & Ready to Hang!
- We stretch (Gallery Wrap) every canvas
- Hanging wire is attached to the back
- 100% Money Back Guarantee · Australian Owned
- Any questions? Please call us on 1300 90 21 53
About The Night Watch by Rembrandt
Rembrandt finished The Night Watch in 1642, at the height of his reputation. Its real title is far longer — Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq — and it was a group portrait, commissioned and paid for by the eighteen men depicted in it.
What Rembrandt delivered was not what group portraits normally were. Instead of a tidy row of faces, he painted the company at the moment of moving off: the captain stepping forward mid-order, a drummer starting up on the right, muskets being loaded, a dog barking, a boy running through with a powder horn. Figures overlap and some are half-buried in shadow. It is enormous — nearly four metres tall and four and a half wide.
The name is a mistake. Centuries of darkened varnish convinced viewers it was a night scene, and the title stuck; cleaning in the 1940s revealed broad daylight. The canvas was also cut down in 1715 to fit a wall in Amsterdam's town hall — strips were sliced from every side, and roughly sixty centimetres came off the left, taking two figures with them.
The Night Watch at a glance
- Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
- Painted: 1642, Amsterdam
- Movement: Dutch Golden Age / Baroque
- Original: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Medium: Oil on canvas, 379.5 × 453.5 cm
Common questions about The Night Watch
Where is The Night Watch?
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in a gallery built specifically around it. Since 2019 it has been the subject of Operation Night Watch, the largest research and conservation project ever undertaken on a single painting, much of it carried out in public view.
Why is it called The Night Watch if it is not at night?
Because for a long time nobody could tell. Layers of darkened varnish had turned the scene murky, and by the late eighteenth century it was assumed to be a night scene. Cleaning in the 1940s revealed daylight, but the name was already three centuries old and had stuck.
How big is The Night Watch?
Roughly 3.8 by 4.5 metres — and it was originally larger still. In 1715 it was trimmed on all four sides to fit between two doors in Amsterdam's town hall, losing about sixty centimetres from the left edge and two figures with it. In 2021 the missing portions were reconstructed using artificial intelligence and a seventeenth-century copy, and temporarily displayed alongside the original.
Who are the people in the painting?
A civic militia company, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq in black with a red sash and his lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch in pale yellow. Eighteen of the figures were paying subjects; Rembrandt added more of his own to fill out the scene. The small girl in gold carrying a chicken is thought to be a mascot, its claws referencing the company's emblem.
Has it ever been damaged?
Three times. It was slashed with a knife in 1911 and again, far more seriously, in 1975, and had acid thrown at it in 1990. Each attack was repaired, though traces of the 1975 damage remain visible under close inspection.
Own a hand-painted Night Watch
This is not a print. Every painting we sell is reproduced in oils on canvas, by hand, by professional artists — no giclée, no computer-generated technique.
Rembrandt's light does not come from anywhere. There is no lamp or window in the picture accounting for it; he simply lit the faces and hands he wanted you to notice and let everything else fall into shadow. He built that effect physically — the illuminated passages are loaded on thickly, ridged and standing proud of the surface, while the darks are thin, transparent glazes over the ground. Light in this painting is literally more paint than dark is. A print gives every part of the canvas the same flat film thickness, which is why reproductions of Rembrandt so often look grey and even. Rebuilt by hand in oils, the thick and thin come back, and the figures emerge from the dark the way he arranged them to.
- A range of sizes — choose yours above. The original is very large and wide; the composition benefits from as much width as your wall allows.
- Framed and ready to hang, gallery wrap, or rolled canvas if you would rather frame it yourself.
- 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions.
- Free delivery Australia-wide. Australian owned and operated, with a local contact you can actually reach.
Framing Options: You have 3 choices
Option 1. Choose an outer frame - see images below.
You only need to choose one and the painting will be sent to you framed and ready to hang.
* Below is an example of a customer who chose the Gold Ornate frame
Option 2: Choose a Gallery Wrap Stretched Painting.
If you want the frameless modern gallery wrap look then you only need to choose Stretched Gallery Wrap from the finish option dropdown.
You receive your stretched gallery wrap painting ready to hang - with a hanging wire attached behind.
The back of the Stretched Gallery Wrap looks like the image below - it has a hanging wire!
Option 3: Choose Canvas Only if you want to frame the painting yourself.
Your painting will be sent to you in an art tube - you can then frame it yourself or take it to your local framer.
Loved by our customers
The quality of the work is ten out of ten. The piece was affordable and the turnaround time was quite quick. What you see is what you get. I’ll definitely be getting my next painting from Direct Art Australia.
My wife already had a couple of pieces of custom ordered paintings she had collected throughout the last few years and with your large selection to choose from she found the perfect complimentary piece to finish off her room.
Great painting. Brightens up my living room.
Amazing piece…. even better than I expected. Thoroughly recommend Direct Art Australia.
This piece of art work exceeded our expectations. It was purchased for a 50th birthday gift for a lady who has everything! She was overwhelmed at the quality of the painting. Thank you art direct!
Product is as good or better than expected. Beautiful quality, very well packaged and delivered as promised. Very happy indeed with this artwork.
