page_title: The Night Watch
section_title: Vandalism and restoration
hierarchical_section_title: The Night Watch / History / Vandalism and restoration
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das Gemälde Die Nachtwache des Malers Rembrandt van Rijn während Untersuchungen im Rahmen der Restaurationsmaßnahme Operation Nightwatch. Für die Erfassung mittels hochauflösender Digitalfotografie, Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyse und Spektroskopie während des laufenden Museumsbetriebs wurde um das Gemälde ein Glaskasten gebaut. English: The painting The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn during restoration measures as part of Operation Night Watch. A glass box was built around the painting for the acquisition by means of high-resolution digital photography, X-ray fluorescence analysis and spectroscopy while the museum was in operation.
context_page_description: Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch, is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best-known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings.
  The painting is famous for three things: its colossal size, the dramatic use of light and shadow and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military group portrait. The painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch. With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd: the two men in the center, and the woman in the centre-left background carrying a chicken. Behind them, the company's colors are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen. The figures are almost life-size.
context_section_description: For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish, which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name by which it is now commonly known.
  On 13 January 1911, a jobless shoemaker and former Navy chef attempted to slash the painting with a shoemaker's knife protesting his inability to find work. However, the thick coating of varnish protected the painting from any damage at that time. The varnish was removed only in the 1940s.
  On 14 September 1975, the work was attacked with a bread knife by an unemployed school teacher, Wilhelmus de Rijk, resulting in several large zig-zagged slashes up to 30 cm long. De Rijk, who suffered from mental illness, claimed he "did it for the Lord" and that he "was ordered to do it." The painting was successfully restored after four years, but some evidence of the damage is still visible up close. De Rijk was never charged, as he committed suicide in April 1976.
  On 6 April 1990, an escaped psychiatric patient sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. Security guards intervened, stopping the man and quickly spraying water onto the canvas. Ultimately, the acid only penetrated the varnish layer of the painting, and it was fully restored.
  In July 2019, a long and complex restoration effort began. The restoration is taking place in public, in a specially-made glass enclosure built and placed in the Rijksmuseum, and is being livestreamed. The plan was to move the 337kg painting into the enclosure starting when the museum closed for the day on 9 July, then to map the painting "layer by layer and pigment by pigment", and plan conservation work according to what was found. Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum's general director, said that despite working there for 17 years, he had never seen the top of the painting; "We know so little on how [Rembrandt] worked on making The Night Watch."
caption: The painting during restoration measures (Operation Night Watch), October 2019
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