The company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, "The Night Watch"

The original, signed and dated 1642, 363 x 437 cm, has been in the Rijksmuseum since 1808 (on loan from the City of Amsterdam). It was made to adorn the Great Hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, Amsterdam, and was later moved to the Town Hall. At that occasion the painting was trimmed at the left side and at the bottom, in order to fit in the War Council Room. The present lot shows the composition as it was before the canvas had been trimmed. For this Wouters probably relied upon the early copy after the Night Watch by Gerrit Lundens executed in 1649, also in the Rijksmuseum (on loan from the National Gallery, London, since 1958).

See illustration