Rembrandt’s Night Watch has a lead-based impregnation layer under the primer to protect the world-famous painting, probably against moisture. The Rijksmuseum reported this on Friday. Utrecht University refers to it as a lead-containing oil, a conclusion that follows ‘from advanced analysis of a real paint sample from the historical painting’.
Researchers of the so-called Operation Night Watch discovered this previously unknown layer on the painting from 1642. Operation Night Watch is the name of extensive research into the painting and its aim is to ‘optimally preserve the painting for the future’, as the museum describes. It started in the summer of 2019. The public can follow everything because the research is done in a glass room in a room in the museum.
The method Rembrandt used “was already described in the seventeenth century, but has never been found in the paintings of Rembrandt or his contemporaries. This once again emphasizes Rembrandt’s inventive way of working, in which he did not shy away from using new techniques,” reports the museum. “The painter knew that his painting would hang on the inside of the (damp) outside wall of the large hall of the Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam. A lead-rich oil impregnation protects better against moisture and mold than the glue layer that was common in the 17th century. was applied to the canvas.”
The museum states that research was conducted “on a paint sample at a particle accelerator, the PETRA III synchrotron of DESY in Hamburg. This showed that a lead-containing layer was present under the paint. The Night Watch was also examined using non-invasive imaging techniques in the Hall of Fame of the Rijksmuseum. This confirmed the presence of the lead layer.”