REMBRANDT PAINTED THE Night watch in 1642 for the great hall at the Kloveniersdoelen (Arquebusiers’ headquarters), Amsterdam (Fig.43). 1 It had been commissioned by the officers and men of the company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburgh, the men dressed respectively in black and yellow at the centre of the composition. It was painted on three strips of canvas arranged horizontally. In or soon after 1715 the painting was placed in the Kleine Krijgsraadkamer (Small War Council Room) of the Amsterdam Town Hall, and, in order to fit this new site, a wide strip was trimmed from the left-hand side, while smaller strips were removed from the other three edges of the painting. It subsequently underwent several treatments, which are discussed in this article. In 1947 the conservation of the Night watch, which had taken two years, had nearly reached completion. That autumn a lengthy article by Arthur F.E. van Schendel (1910–79) and Henricus Hubertus Mertens (1905–81) appeared in Oud Holland in which the authors discussed the painting’s earlier history, The authors wish to thank Mandy Prins, who paved the way for this article with her archival research from 2008 to 2010 on Van Schendel’s role in the international field of conservation, which will hopefully result in an article by Esther van Duijn and her for The Bulletin of the Rijksmuseum in 2016–17. Van Duijn currently works at the Rijksmuseum on a research project – made possible by the Luca Fund – on the conservation history of the paintings’ collection of the Museum. The authors would like to thank all those who made suggestions while this article was being written and who commented on the first draft: Jonathan Bikker, Morwenna Blewett, Nadja Garthoff, Anne van Grevenstein, Wouter Th. Kloek, Anna Krekeler, Norbert Middelkoop, Mireille ter Marvelde, Petria Noble, Gwen Tauber, Ige Verslype and Ernst van de Wetering. Figs.44–47 and 55–57 are copyright the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 1 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on loan from the City of Amsterdam since 1808, inv. no.SK–C–5. See J. Bruyn et al.: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, III, Dordrecht, Boston and London 1989, pp.430–85, no.A–146; H. Colenbrander: ‘De decoratie van de grote zaal van de Kloveniersdoelen. Een vooropgezet plan?’ and ‘Hoe hoog hing de Nachtwacht – Een kwestie van ellen, voeten en duimen’, De Amsterdamse schutterstukken 1529–1656 – Jaarboek van het Genootschap Amstelodamum 105 (2013), pp.218–36 and 238–75; and J. Bikker et al.: Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, II: Artists born between 1601 and 1620, forthcoming. the burlington magazine • clviI1 • february 2016 117 43. The officers and civic guards of Dis- trict II of Amsterdam under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, known as the Night watch, by Rembrandt. 1642. Canvas, 363 by 438 cm. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on loan from the City of Amsterdam). The Art of Conservation III: The restorations of Rembrandt’s ‘Night watch’ by ESTHER VAN DUIJN and JAN PIET FILEDT KOK