The Night Watch

1642

Oil on canvas, 379.5 × 453.5 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (on loan from the City of Amsterdam)

In a crowd of guardsmen, a few lit details stand out.

The Rijksmuseum points to two: the captain's gesturing hand and a young girl in the background.
The museum identifies the girl as the company's mascot.
It also calls Rembrandt the first to show the sitters in a group portrait "actually doing something."

Concepts