• Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed
Counter-Currents
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy

LEVEL2

  • Webzine
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Comments feed
    • Podcast feed
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • T&C
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Print
July 8, 2019 3 comments

Rembrandt’s The Night Watch

Alex Graham

Rembrandt, The Night Watch

1,427 words

Today, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum will begin its restoration of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, or Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (1642). It is the largest research and restoration project the Museum has undertaken and will last several years. The process will be broadcast live online.

The restoration of The Night Watch is one of several events and exhibitions in 2019 commemorating the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. From February 15 to June 10, the Rijksmuseum displayed their entire Rembrandt collection: twenty-two paintings, sixty drawings, and more than three hundred prints (high-resolution images of the Rembrandts in their possession are available on the museum’s Website). From October 11 to January 19, they will display Rembrandt and Velázquez paintings side-by-side (alongside other Dutch and Spanish masterpieces). The Mauritshuis will also be displaying its entire Rembrandt collection until September 15. The British Museum will be displaying sixty-five prints and drawings by Rembrandt until August 4, and the Museum De Lakenhal will be displaying early works by Rembrandt from November 3 to February 9. There is also a new biography of Rembrandt in print: Jonathan Bikker’s Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel.

In the first stage of the project, researchers will map the surface of the painting to discern what it originally looked like and how it was created. After the data is analyzed, they will proceed with the restoration.

The last time The Night Watch was restored was in 1976, after a man attacked the painting with a bread knife. Incidents of vandalism also occurred in 1911 and 1990. Prior to the 1976 incident, the painting had last been restored at the end of the Second World War. The dark varnish covering the painting was removed, revealing that the scene depicted was actually not meant to be at nighttime.

The Night Watch was commissioned by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and his militia for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, a shooting range and meeting place for a faction of the schutterij, or civic guard, of Amsterdam. Cocq is shown at the center of the painting; to his right is his Lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch.

The purpose of the civic guard was to defend the city. For every twenty thousand inhabitants of a town, there would be six hundred schutters. In Amsterdam, they were divided into three groups according to the weapons they carried. The Kloveniersdoelen was the musketeers’ designated headquarters, the Handboogdoelen was for longbowmen, and the Voetboogdoelen for crossbowmen. During times of peace, the militias’ function was to maintain order and participate in official ceremonies. They also provided opportunities for men to socialize with each other. In times of war, the men fought in battle. Many died defending Haarlem when it was besieged by an army of Philip II of Spain from 1572 to 1573.

It was customary for militias to commission group portraits to be displayed in their respective headquarters. Portraits of militias (and of regents of other civic organizations) feature prominently in Dutch Golden Age painting.

Frans Hals, The Officers of the St. George Militia Company in 1639

Rembrandt’s portrait deviates from convention in that the subjects are not positioned in an orderly formation and are shown in motion, about to set off on a mission. The standard-bearer raises the flag, the drummer starts playing, and the other men prepare their weapons. One man is loading his arquebus; another is cleaning his. A third man behind the Captain fires a shot. The drama of the painting is enhanced by the strong contrasts between light and dark (chiaroscuro). It is also a work of colossal proportions, measuring about ten by fourteen feet. Before the painting was trimmed upon being transferred to the Amsterdam Town Hall, it measured about thirteen by sixteen feet.

It has been said that the unconventional nature of The Night Watch was widely condemned, but this is not the case (though some subjects were not pleased that they were not displayed prominently). Rembrandt received 1,600 guilders for the work. Cocq had a watercolor copy made for his family album, and the artist Gerrit Lundens painted a smaller replica of it.

Amid the chaos of the painting, the viewer’s eye is led toward the Captain and the two illuminated figures flanking him. The arquebuses and pikes point toward the central figures. The Captain, with his outstretched hand, is shown leading his men forward. In his other hand, he holds a glove, which could reflect a readiness to “throw down the gauntlet” and fight. The shadow of his left hand falls upon the coat of the Lieutenant; between his thumb and fingers is a lion and three crosses, recalling the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam. (This is a particular point of emphasis given that the position of the shadow does not match the angle indicated by the shadow of the Captain’s leg.) This symbolizes the militia’s loyalty to the city and their commitment to defending it.

The identity of the young girl on the Captain’s left is unknown. She functions as something of a mascot in the painting. Around her waist are two symbols of the militia: a gunpowder bag and a chicken. The militia’s coat of arms featured a chicken’s claws. It is perhaps significant that the standard-bearer is directly above the girl, symbolizing the imperative of defending the country for the sake of future generations. To the girl’s right is the man firing his arquebus. The oak leaves on his helmet connote victory and heroism.

One Jewish academic interprets the girl as an ironic device employed “as a challenge to the sitters’ manhood,” and that she is mocking their incompetence as soldiers.[1] He points to the contrast between their high-end accoutrements and their lack of coordination as evidence that Rembrandt was subtly making fun of them. He forgets that Rembrandt was not a Jew. The Night Watch is not a parody of hapless posers, but rather a manifestation of Rembrandt’s populist streak and his mission to portray “the greatest and most natural movement.”

It’s hard to behold The Night Watch and not come to the conclusion that Rembrandt sees humanity and dignity in the militiamen. One critic remarks:

What Rembrandt represents here is not the noisy chauvinism of the pretentious, but the healthy and sane activity of an armed community determined to perpetuate itself. The protection of one’s own life and property involves the defense of one’s family and one’s heirs; it reaches out even further to include, first, friends and neighbors; then the home town; and finally those wider ties which destiny has linked with our history and which we call our native land, for this too has always been the ancestral and hereditary property of every citizen. The balanced well-being of the individual is all the more secure, the greater and the wider the base upon which it rests. On old Dutch ducats there appears the symbol of a man with a sheaf of arrows. A single arrow is easily broken, but bound up with others it helps to form a shaft of great resistance.[2]

When The Night Watch was painted in 1642, The Netherlands was still a young nation and had yet to be officially recognized. The first Dutch nation-state, the Dutch Republic, was formed in 1581, fourteen years after the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt led by William I of Orange, which marked the beginning of the Eighty Years’ War. The Dutch national anthem, the “Wilhelmus,” dates back to this period. William was declared an outlaw by Spain and was assassinated in 1584. Spain continued to attack Dutch territory, and the Dutch Republic was not officially recognized as an independent nation until the signing of the Treaty of Münster in 1648.

The tables turned in the latter half of the war (which merged with the Thirty Years’ War), and the Dutch experienced a string of victories. The militias’ function was largely ceremonial by the time the Eighty Years’ War came to a close, so the men in The Night Watch would not have seen fighting. But the exact circumstances of the painting are not particularly significant, because The Night Watch is more than a mere group portrait. It is a representation of the populist spirit of the Dutch Revolt and the generations of Dutchmen who defended their cities. In the words of Pieter Roelofs, curator of seventeenth-century Dutch painting at the Rijksmuseum, “It’s much more than just a painting. It stands for the country as a whole.”

Notes

[1] Harry Berger, Manhood, Marriage, and Mischief: Rembrandt’s Night Watch and Other Dutch Group Portraits (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007), p. 223.

[2] Paul Leroy, “Rembrandt: Educator of Humanity,” The American Scholar, vol. 23, no. 3 (Summer 1954), pp. 310-320.

 

Related

  • The Plymouth 400 Symposium
    William Billings & the Yankee Tunesmiths

  • Remembering Ludwig van Beethoven
    (December 17, 1770-March 26, 1827)

  • Fox News & the Boomer Question

  • Remembering Wyndham Lewis
    (November 18, 1882-March 7, 1957)

  • August Kubizek’s The Young Hitler I Knew

  • Remembering Walter Gieseking
    (November 5, 1895-October 26, 1956)

  • Ivan Zajc’s Nikola Šubić Zrinski

  • Kyle Rittenhouse & the Kenosha Shooting

Tags

Alex Grahampaintingthe Netherlands

Previous

« The European Idea of Progress Supersedes the Axial Age, Part II

Next

A Note on the “Islamic Question” »

3 comments

  1. drogger says:
    July 8, 2019 at 6:12 am

    Can’t wait for the touchups when they make him black, his compatriots Muslim, and at least 1 background figure trans.

  2. margot metroland says:
    July 9, 2019 at 2:46 am

    I appreciate this piece as a meaningful contribution to ongoing art history, a subject that needs a bigger footprint here, since it’s the biggest tracker of metapolitics.

    Now, to me, The Night Watch was meant to be a dim thing, and it seems almost sacrilegious to brighten it. Yet while Rembrandt liked to paint “dim,” he didn’t mean it to be that dim.

  3. Konrad E. Kurtz says:
    July 9, 2019 at 11:59 am

    A photographer and costume designer have made a life-sized ‘re-enactment’ photograph of The Night Watch in light of this 350th anniversary. A pastiche perhaps, but at least not some cynical parody.
    The project also includes a photograph taken from the other side. It shows the common man of that time, like those depicted in tavern scenes and other ‘genre works’ (as well as Rembrandt making some finishing touches on his painting in the background). Given the connotation of ‘the other side of the medallion’, I’m actually quite surprised that it doesn’t include certain poor souls whose brutal exploitation, I am told, is the sole reason why the men on the foreground could afford commissioning The Night Watch. No ‘woke’ political statements, just an high effort homage.

    https://www.nachtwacht360.nl/

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

Recent posts
  • I’m Not a Racist, But. . .

    Jim Goad

    8

  • The Father

    Steven Clark

    1

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 335
    Dark Enlightenment

    Counter-Currents Radio

  • Are We Ready For “White Boy Summer”?

    Robert Hampton

    27

  • Can the Libertarian Party Become a Popular Vanguard?

    Beau Albrecht

    15

  • Every Phoenix Needs Its Ashes

    Mark Gullick

    16

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 334
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    1

  • If I Were Black, I’d Vote Democrat

    Spencer J. Quinn

    12

  • The Silence of the Scam:
    The Killing of Dr. Lesslie

    Stephen Paul Foster

    6

  • Proud of Being Guilty:
    Fighting the Stigma of Lawfare in Sweden & Winning

    HMF Medaljen

    6

  • The Halifax Grooming Gang Survivor

    Morris V. de Camp

    19

  • Get on the Right Side of the Paywall

    Greg Johnson

    12

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    April 4-10, 2021

    Jim Goad

    13

  • Forthcoming from Counter-Currents:
    Jonathan Bowden’s Reactionary Modernism

    Jonathan Bowden

  • Remembering Prince Philip

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    14

  • Remembering Jonathan Bowden
    (April 12, 1962–March 29, 2012)

    Greg Johnson

    7

  • Today’s Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

  • Paywall Launch, Monday, April 12th

    Greg Johnson

    10

  • Galaxy Quest:
    From Cargo Cult to Cosplay

    James J. O'Meara

    13

  • Biden to Whites: Drop Dead!

    Spencer J. Quinn

    20

  • Politicians Didn’t Invent Racial Divisions

    Robert Hampton

    7

  • London: No City for White Men

    Jim Goad

    51

  • Republicans Should Stop Pandering to Blacks

    Lipton Matthews

    18

  • Quotations From Chairman Rabble
    Kenneth Roberts: A Patriotic Curmudgeon

    Steven Clark

    6

  • Remembering Emil Cioran
    (April 8, 1911–June 20, 1995)

    Guillaume Durocher

    5

  • An Interview with Béla Incze:
    The Man Who Destroyed a BLM Statue

    Béla Incze

    15

  • Heidegger’s History of Metaphysics, Part Six:
    G. W. Leibniz’s Will-to-Power

    Collin Cleary

    12

  • The Importance of Survival Skills

    Marcus Devonshire

    22

  • The Oslo Incident

    Greg Johnson

    2

  • Mihai Eminescu:
    Romania’s Morning Star

    Amory Stern

    1

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World & Me

    Beau Albrecht

    21

  • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 333
    Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Fróði Midjord

    Counter-Currents Radio

    3

  • The Worst Week Yet:
    March 28-April 3, 2021

    Jim Goad

    18

  • Murder Maps:
    Agatha Christie’s Insular Imperialism

    Kathryn S.

    29

  • A Clockwork Orange

    Trevor Lynch

    21

  • Easter Livestream:
    Ask Counter-Currents with Greg Johnson, Millennial Woes, & Frodi Midjord

    Greg Johnson

    1

  • Our Big, Beautiful Wall

    Greg Johnson

    4

  • Agrarian Populism & Cargo Cult Fascism

    Nicholas R. Jeelvy

    9

  • One Carjacking Embodies the New America

    Robert Hampton

    38

  • The de la Poer Madness:
    Before and After Lovecraft’s “Rats in the Walls”

    James J. O'Meara

    9

  • Requiem for a Jigger

    Jim Goad

    39

  • The Promise & the Reality of Globalization 

    Algis Avižienis

    17

  • When They Destroy Memorials, We Raise Our Own to the Fallen

    Hawkwood

    8

  • The Counter-Currents Newsletter, March 2021

    Greg Johnson

    3

  • Making Lions out of Lambs:
    A Response to Max Morton of American Greatness

    Spencer J. Quinn

    9

  • How the Coronavirus Took Over the World

    Veiko Hessler

    13

  • Culture, History, & Metapolitics in Poland:
    An Interview with Jaroslaw Ostrogniew, Part 2

    Ondrej Mann

    3

  • With Brasillach in Spain & Germany: Remembering Robert Brasillach (March 31, 1909 – February 6, 1945)

    Margot Metroland

    2

  • Et tu, AOC?

    Travis LeBlanc

    22

  • Mrs. America Redux

    P. J. Collins

    9

Recent comments
  • @Muhammad & Lexi. We don’t slice the tip of our fingers when we trim our nails. Just as...
  • People need to just accept that being racist is normal and good. Nothing will change until that...
  • Mr. Goad's article reads like the 20 years I suffered living in a 50% black neighborhood. The day we...
  • Whites are going to have to start taking a page out of the Fishtown, PA playbook. It was so...
  • Makes me want to take up smoking again. Why would anyone want to live long enough to end up a burden...
Editor-in-Chief
Greg Johnson
Our titles
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • Imperium
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Novel Folklore
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • The Homo and the Negro, Second Edition
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • The End of an Era
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Lost Violent Souls
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • Baader Meinhof ceramic pistol, Charles Kraaft 2013
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher, Second Expanded Edition
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Artists of the Right
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Under the Nihil
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Hold Back This Day
  • The Columbine Pilgrim
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Toward the White Republic
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
Distributed Titles
  • Rss
  • DLive
  • Telegram
  • Gab
  • Entropy
Copyright © 2021 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd. Rembrandt’s The Night Watch

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.