• A. Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • B. The Night Watch
  • C. The Potato Eaters
  • D. The Milkmaid

💡 Need a hint?

This work is a militia piece: a group portrait of an armed company that appears to spring into motion. The scale is enormous, and the painting is named after the dark, shadowy effect that was visible on the canvas for a long time.

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The correct answer is B. The Night Watch.

This militia piece was completed by Rembrandt van Rijn in 1642 and hangs as a centerpiece in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is a group portrait of a company of civic guards led by their captain. What made it remarkable for its time: Rembrandt did not arrange the figures stiffly side by side, but captured them in full action and movement. That was far from obvious at the time.

The other options are also well-known Dutch masterworks, but by different painters. Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid are by Johannes Vermeer, and The Potato Eaters is an early work by Vincent van Gogh that can be found in the Van Gogh Museum, not the Rijksmuseum.

📚 More background information

The name “The Night Watch” is actually misleading. The painting does not depict a nighttime scene. For centuries the canvas appeared dark due to thick layers of varnish and accumulated grime, but after later cleaning sessions it turned out that the scene takes place in broad daylight. The official title in fact refers to the captain’s company, not to a night.

The sheer scale alone is impressive: the canvas measures several meters in width, making it one of the largest paintings in the collection. The Rijksmuseum carried out extensive research on the work as part of a large-scale restoration and research project, during which the painting was studied in full view of the public inside the museum gallery. Visitors could literally watch while conservators worked.

What many people do not know: during that same research project, investigators discovered details that had been hidden beneath grime for centuries. The painting we know today is in fact also considerably smaller than the original, as strips were cut from all sides at some point in history.