Praten Met De Nachtwacht
Journalist Coen Verbraak talks to the main characters in Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Who are those people in that imposing painting?
Between 1639 and 1642, Rembrandt painted his most famous and largest painting. The Night Watch has enchanted and intrigued its audience for almost four hundred years. In his characteristic way, Coen Verbraak talks to the main characters of Rembrandt’s masterpiece. The captain, the lieutenant, the standard-bearer, the drummer, the golden girl: they all take a seat at his table. Rembrandt himself also talks about the circumstances under which his most important work was created.
The concept of Praten Met De Nachtwacht was conceived by producers Joost de Wolf and Anton Smit, who soon enlisted the help of art historian Fieke Tissink. She worked in the Rijksmuseum’s education department for a long time and wrote a museum guide for the Rembrandt House Museum. Tissink chose the characters and provided the actors with information. They were not given the interview questions beforehand; in the film, we see the actors improvising based on the information given to them by Tissink.