Operation Night Watch

The Night Watch is Rembrandt’s most celebrated painting, showing citizens of Amsterdam protecting the city. The painting is almost 400 years old, and it deserves the best possible care so that people can continue to enjoy it, far into the future. That’s why in 2019 the Rijksmuseum started Operation Night Watch, the biggest and most wide-ranging research and conservation project ever carried out on Rembrandt’s masterpiece.

WHAT’S GOING ON RIGHT NOW

We are currently in the process of conducting varnish removal tests to work out the safest approach for removing the layers of varnish from the painting.

Varnish

Varnish is a transparent coating applied over the painted surface to protect it. As well as protecting the layers of paint, the varnish saturates the colours to achieve the desired brightness and intensity. Over time, however, the varnish becomes less transparent due to discolouring and tiny cracks – it can be like looking through a fogged-up window. That’s why in some cases the decision is taken to remove old layers of varnish from a painting and replace them with new varnish.

Cotton bud or cloth?

Restorers often remove varnish from paintings with cotton buds and solvent. Another method is to use an absorbent synthetic cloth – one of the advantages of this approach is that you use much less solvent. We are testing out both methods on The Night Watch. The small areas of the painting used for the varnish removal tests are clearly visible because the paint look less vibrant without varnish.

The Night Watch: visibility temporarily reduced

Operation Night Watch offers a unique opportunity for visitors to follow the restoration of Rembrandt’s masterpiece live at the Rijksmuseum. We are currently studying the effects of vibrations on the canvas and how we can minimise any chance of movement in the canvas. These activities are temporarily reducing the visibility of The Night Watch. This work is an essential step in the restoration process, and we are unfortunately unable to avoid reducing visibility of the painting . This phase of the research project will continue until mid-September.

THE RESEARCH PROJECT

The Rijksmuseum is conducting this research on The Night Watch in partnership with experts from AkzoNobel.

We thank

Operation Night Watch is made possible by The Bennink Foundation, C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken, PACCAR Foundation, Piet van der Slikke & Sandra Swelheim, American Express Foundation, Familie De Rooij, Het AutoBinck Fonds, TBRM Engineering Solutions, Dina & Kjell Johnsen, Familie D. Ermia, Familie M. van Poecke, Bruker Nano Analytics, Henry M. Holterman Fonds, Irma Theodora Fonds, Luca Fonds, Piek-den Hartog Fonds, Stichting Zabawas, Cevat Fonds, Johanna Kast-Michel Fonds, Marjorie & Jeffrey A. Rosen, Stichting Thurkowfonds, Familie Van Ogtrop Fonds, FedEx Express, Airbnb, NICAS, the Night Watch Fund, the City of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Museum.