[MR] History Blog: Trimmed Night Watch "Restored"

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Yesterday the History Blog reported on the "untrimming" of Rembrandt's
famous 1642 "Night Watch" painting.

The huge canvas is more properly known as "The Militia Company of District
II Under the Command of Captain Frans Bannick Cocq", and was commissioned
by Cocq himself. In 1715 the painting was moved to the City Hall, and was
rather cruelly lopped on all four sides to make it fit a smaller space.

Fortunately Cocq had also commissioned a small copy by Gerrit Ludens which
still survives. Conservators were able to take scans of the copy, correct
for the differences in style, and make full-sized reproductions of the
missing sections. Now you can see the Night Watch, more or less, as it was
when Rembrandt put down his brushes.

Here's the complete story: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/61640 .

Wikipedia has an interesting history of the painting at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Watch .

And finally, I can't forget the famous flash mob project which brought the
painting to life in a Dutch shopping mall, "Onze helden zijn terug!" [Our
Heroes Return], and the companion film showing how the film was created:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6W2ZMpsxhg and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxPhRsl57dM . The "Making of" film now has
English subtitles on the screen.

Every time I watch these films I see another detail I hadn't noticed.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆