Standing in-front of gigantic work would make you speechless. The size of the canvas, the whole skill of managing such a large painting with the detailing at it\’s best in every corner of the painting makes you stand numb with full of surprises and disbelieves when you reach the hall of Rijksmuseum where this painting is hung. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings.

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 (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch (dressed in yellow, with a white sash). 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 (from whom the painting gets its original title), 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.

The Night Watch first hung in the Groote Zaal (Great Hall) or Amsterdam\’s Kloveniersdoelen. This structure currently houses the Doelen Hotel. In 1715, the painting was moved to the Amsterdam Town Hall, for which it was trimmed on all four sides. This was done, presumably, to fit the painting between two columns and was a common practice before the 19th century. This alteration resulted in the loss of two characters on the left side of the painting, the top of the arch, the balustrade, and the edge of the step. A 17th-century copy of the painting by Gerrit Lundens (1622–1683) at the National Gallery, London, shows the original composition.

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.^[7] 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. With a history of mental illness he 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. The man was never charged and 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 sprayed water onto the canvas. The acid had only penetrated the varnish layer of the painting and it was fully restored.^[12]

In July 2019 a long and complex restoration 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 it 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. As the painting has always been on display, even those who knew it best had much to learn. 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 he worked on making The Night Watch.\”