It didn’t exactly take dogged detective work for an art sleuth in Amsterdam to solve a canine conundrum dating back to the Dutch Golden Age.
Anne Lenders, a curator at the city’s landmark Rijksmuseum, said Tuesday that it was more or less by accident that she discovered that the barking dog in Rembrandt van Rijn’s famous “Night Watch” is a near-identical copy of one that features in a 1619 pen and ink drawing by fellow Dutch artist Adriaen van de Venne.
“I wasn’t looking for this; it was really unexpected,” Lenders said in the glass room where “Night Watch” is undergoing extensive restoration.
Peter Dejong / AP
She was visiting an exhibition at the Zeeuws Museum in the southern Netherlands when her eye fell on a picture of a dog by Van de Venne that was printed in a book by the poet Jacob Cats. The original drawing – which turned out to be part of the Rijksmuseum’s own vast collection – was also on display.
Using her phone to compare the two images side by side, the 39-year-old Dutchwoman saw “striking similarities” between van de Venne’s dog and the canine depicted in Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece.
“The resemblance is so strong that at the very first moment I thought he (Rembrandt) must have used this,” she added.
That’s when the research started: a comparison of Van de Venne’s and Rembrandt’s dogs; their pose, even the collar they wear.
“The head turns in exact the same angle with the mouth slightly opened. … Both dogs have long hair and ears that hang vertical,” said Lenders.
Peter Dejong / AP
In the “Night Watch,” the dog adds tension to a dark corner of the crowded composition, crouching and apparently barking near a drummer called Jacob Jorisz and just behind one of the iconic 1642 painting’s main characters, Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.
The discovery is the latest in a series of revelations to emerge during a yearslong project to reexamine the 379.5 by 453.5-centimeter (149.4 by 178.5-inch) canvas using modern techniques. “Operation Night Watch” began in 2019 with an extensive study of the painting and is continuing with restoration work that is likely to take years to complete.
“The Night Watch is Rembrandt’s most famous painting and we always think that it was created out of nothing, out of his genius,” Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, told Agence France-Presse. “But Rembrandt, like the great Italian masters Michelangelo and Raphael, used works of art by artists before him to make his own compositions.”
One thing the Rijksmuseum couldn’t figure out was exactly what kind of dog it is, with expert opinions divided between a French or a Dutch breed. Most likely, the two artists used a little poetic license.
“We will never have a conclusion on which breed it is,” Dibbits said. “But it’s definitely very much loved.”
While Dibbits credited “well informed luck” for the find, he said such discovery could only have happened with the help of “Operation Night Watch”, a large-scale public restoration project launched in 2019.
“You would say, well, the painting is so famous, everything has already been discovered,” he said,
“But of course you always with art discover new things and that’s why Rembrandt is such a great artist.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
