The restoration of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” painting is underway

The second phase of the Rijksmuseum’s Operation Night Watch, the largest research and restoration project ever undertaken for Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece – The Night Watch – is in motion.

On Tuesday, a team of eight conservators at Amsterdam’s National Museum began removing the varnish from the 144-by-175-inch oil painting. The move follows the first phase of the operation: five years of research and analysis using advanced techniques including digital imaging, scientific and materials engineering research, computer science and artificial intelligence.

The restorers work in front of the public in a specially designed glass chamber in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honor

“After years of careful research, we have developed a targeted plan to treat the varnish and paint layers The Night Watch“ the team said in a video. “To remove the old paint, we use a special technique: non-woven fabric prepared with a measured amount of solvent. The advantage of this technique is that it requires less mechanical intervention on the painting. You place the handkerchief on the surface and e.g [60 seconds] Let the solvent do its work. Any remaining varnish on the surface of the painting is removed under the microscope using cotton swabs and other methods.”

They said the paint will look “very gray and dull” during the restoration, but will regain its strength after the new paint is applied. Removing the varnish applied during the painting’s last restoration in 1975-76 and applying a new coat will “optimally preserve the painting for the future,” the museum said in a statement. This process follows experiments on other paintings and tests The Night Watch himself.

“The beginning of the restoration is exciting. Removing the varnish reveals it The Night Watch“It’s an eventful history,” said Taco Dibbits, the general director of the Rijksmuseum. “It will be a unique experience for the public to follow this process up close.”

In July, during the first phase of Operation Night Watch, which began in 2019, chemists at the Dutch University of Amsterdam (UvA) discovered how Rembrandt managed to embellish the painting with striking gold details.

They used state-of-the-art spectroscopic technology to identify the presence of (yellow) pararealgar and (orange/red) semi-amorphous pararealgar pigments in the famous artwork in great detail. The research team concluded that the Dutch artist intentionally mixed these special arsenic sulfide pigments with other pigments to create the golden sheen.

Rembrandt used this technique to paint the gold threads in the embroidered buff coat and double sleeves worn by one of the painting’s two protagonists, Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.

The study was published in Heritage Sciencea journal with peer-reviewed research, by Fréderique Broers and Nouchka de Keyser, doctoral students at the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the UvA and also researchers at the Rijksmuseum.

During the research, other secrets were revealed, including the presence of arsenic and sulfur in Van Ruytenburch’s clothing after an X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) scan. Therefore, researchers believe that Rembrandt used arsenic sulfide pigments in realgar [red] and orpiment [yellow].

Operation Night Watch is a collaboration between several institutions, including the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Amsterdam University Medical Centers (AUMC) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC