Mystery of Rembrandt's Night Watch solved

Thursday 12 March 2009

The puzzle of exactly who is who on Rembrandt’s famous Night Watch painting of Amsterdam's civic guard has been solved after 367 years, reports the Volkskrant on Thursday.

The paper interviews historian Bas Dudok van Heel who is due to present his findings at the Tefaf art fair in Maastricht today.

Although the names of the 18 marksmen depicted in the masterpiece have been known since 1715 no-one has matched them to specific individuals until now, the paper explains.

'I know their age, their profession, address, and can point them out,‘ says Dudok van Heel, who also found out the name of the drummer on the painting - Jacob Jorisz - who has not been named before.

‘He wouldn’t have paid the 100 guilders that each marksman paid [for their portrait]. He only earned 40 guilders a year so he couldn’t’, Dudock van Heel says.

The historian has also discovered that the famous painting formed a frieze together with portraits by other 17th artists.

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© DutchNews.nl

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