Storyteller Jean van Dijk and journalist Petra de Beij step into the NH podcast ‘De Reizen, which was published today’ in the footsteps of the famous painting. They discover new riddles and special facts. For example, the Night Watch had a remarkable collection of residence and there is news about the ‘birthplace’ of the canvas.
Alternative location
For years it was assumed that Rembrandt painted the Night Watch in the courtyard of his house on Jodenbreestraat in Amsterdam. But that turns out to be unlikely, says Leonore van Sloten, curator at Museum Rembrandthuis.
“No substances or insects were found in the paint, while you would expect them there. A logical and plausible alternative location is the call-floor of his house, which was large and high enough for the enormous cloth.”
Long travel history
The most famous painting in the Netherlands is of a huge size: 3.79 meters high and 4, 53 meters wide. That doesn’t just fit through a door. Without frame the painting weighs 170 kilos, with list 337 kilos.
Nevertheless, the Night Watch moved at least twelve times in the last 380 years. Sometimes undamaged, but the canvas was also rolled up in a bunker, hidden in a cave and even spent a night in the open air. How did they get the gigantic painting through narrow doors and narrow streets? And is it true that Keizer Napoleon once stood on top of the Night Watch?