 |
| The Night Watch |
 |
| Rembrandt van Rijn |
The Night Watch is a painting made by Rembrandt Harmenszoon
van Rijn in 1642. It was painted with oil painting on canvas. Its sizes are 363
x 437 cm. Rembrandt received the
commission to paint The Night Watch for the Kloveniersdoelen, the guild
hall that housed the Amsterdam civic guard company of musketeers.
The work shows Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburgh, surrounded by sixteen of their men, other people were added later.
It is present in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. In 1715 it
was cut to make it smaller, we can know its real sizes because there are some copies of the painting. It has also suffered different vandalism attacks
but it has been successfully restored.
 |
| Original sizes of the painting |
Rembrandt didn’t use a single painting technique, as we can
see in The Night Watch, there are elements worked in detail while others seem
to be painted quickly. Rembrandt used chiaroscuro’s technique in his paintings
with its emphasis on the mysterious, evocative qualities of shadow.
Here we can see some features of this painting:
The Night Watch’s action wasn’t happening during the night
and so that wasn’t its original title. When the critics and the public attached
that word to the painting, the canvas had become very darkened by dirt and
layers of varnish and it seemed to be at night. Its original title was Company
of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch.
Sources:
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThese are my comments and corrections to your text:
The Night Watch is a painting made by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn in 1642. It was painted with oil painting on canvas. Its size is 363 x 437 cm. Rembrandt received the commission to paint The Night Watch from the Kloveniersdoelen, the guild hall that housed the Amsterdam civic guard company of musketeers.
The work shows Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburgh, surrounded by sixteen of their men, other people were added later.
It is exhibited in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. In 1715 it was cut to make it smaller, we can know its real size/dimensions because there are some copies of the painting. It has also suffered different vandalism attacks but it has been successfully restored.
Rembrandt didn’t use a single painting technique, as we can see in The Night Watch, there are elements worked in detail while others seem to be painted quickly. Rembrandt used the chiaroscuro(’s) technique in his paintings with his emphasis on the mysterious, evocative qualities of shadow.
Here we can see some features of this painting:
The Night Watch’s action wasn’t happening during the night and so that wasn’t its original title. When the critics and the public attached that word to the painting, the canvas had become very darkened by dirt and layers of varnish and it seemed to be a night scene. Its original title was Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch.
You could have said that this is an example of the typical collective portraits made in the Low Countries, like The Anatomy Lesson and the Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, an important feature of Baroque painting in this area, adapted to their bourgeois taste.
Your idea of the presentation is good, but I think you could have made a deeper research on the painting and Rembrandt style. I always expect more from you.
Yiur mark is 9. Bye!