The Cut Painting

Today, The Night Watch seems perfectly balanced in its composition. Yet a significant part of the painting has disappeared. In the 18th century, the work was literally cut so it could fit between two doors in an Amsterdam official building.

Painted in 1642 by Rembrandt, The Night Watch depicts an Amsterdam civic militia company in an extremely dynamic composition for the period.

Unlike traditional group portraits where each person poses relatively motionless, Rembrandt here constructs a scene full of movement, dramatic light, and complex interactions between armed figures.

In the early 18th century, the painting was moved to Amsterdam's town hall. The problem was simple: the work was too large for the intended space. Rather than modify the architecture, officials chose to cut several strips from the painting's sides. Entire figures partially disappeared and the composition's original balance was modified. For a long time, historians didn't know precisely the work's initial appearance.

In the 17th century however, a painter named Gerrit Lundens had made a copy of the composition before trimming. This version today allows approximate reconstruction of lost parts and understanding of how Rembrandt originally organized the group's visual tensions and movements. The painting's history also illustrates artworks' very different status before modern great museums appeared: several paintings today considered untouchable were still treated as decorative objects adaptable to buildings' constraints.