Rembrandt's Night Watch Dog Revealed as Copy from 1619 Book

Art historian Anne Lenders has discovered that the dog in Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' (1642) was copied from a pen-and-ink drawing by Adriaen van de Venne, created for a 1619 book by poet Jacob Cats. The finding, while surprising to some, aligns with common 17th-century artistic practices of copying and reusing images. The dog appears in the lower right corner of the 359×438 cm masterpiece, housed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This revelation follows recent X-ray analysis that detected a lead layer beneath the painting, likely applied to protect against moisture. The Night Watch has a storied history of theft, vandalism (twice), and restoration. Samuel van Hoogstraten, a student of Rembrandt, once described the work as so pictorial, impetuous, and expressive that nearby paintings seem like playing cards in comparison.