A Dutch schoolmaster slashes a famous Rembrandt painting with a butter knife - September 14th, 1975

On this day in 1975, Rembrandt van Rijn's “The Night Watch” was vandalized while on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that paints the broad strokes of history one
day at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode,
we're looking at the story behind one of the most
acclaimed portraits of the seventeenth century and how it became

(00:22):
one of the most abused paintings in the world. The
day was September nineteen seventy five. Rembrandt von Rhyns The
night Watch was vandalized while on display at the Reich's

(00:44):
Museum in Amsterdam. The man behind the attack was an
unemployed school teacher named William day Reich. Using a butter
knife and allegedly acting on orders from God, day Reich
sliced dozens of jagged lines into the canvas before being
subdued by museum guards. Sadly and strangely, that wasn't the

(01:07):
first or the last time The night Watch came under attack.
Rembrandt's The Night Watch is considered one of the high
points of a career that spanned more than six hundred paintings.
It's also held up is perhaps the greatest portrait of
the Dutch Golden Age, a period from fifteen eighty eight
to sixteen seventy two in which the trade, science, and

(01:30):
art of the Netherlands were renowned throughout Europe. Completed in
sixteen forty two, The Night Watch depicts a gathering of
civic guards or militiamen, as they set out to keep
watch over Amsterdam. Not only is The Night Watch Rembrandt's
most famous painting, it's also his biggest, Spanning just about

(01:50):
twelve feet tall and fourteen feet wide. The colossal work
was commissioned by the subjects of the paintings, the civic
guards of the Dutch cap a group known as the Cloveniers.
They wanted a series of portraits to hang in their
meeting hall, and Rembrandt was one of several artists hired
to produce the artwork. According to the Reich's Museum, Rembrandt

(02:13):
was paid sixteen hundred guilders for his painting, which for reference,
was more than five times the annual salary of an
outdoor laborer. In exchange for this small fortune, the artist
delivered one of the standout portraits of the entire seventeenth century.
He didn't play it safe either, In fact, he actually
deviated from what was expected in a couple different ways. First,

(02:37):
Rembrandt staged the painting in an unusual way. While numerous
military officials had been painted in group portraits before, they'd
always been portrayed as static, like someone posing for a picture.
Rembrandt tossed out that convention in favor of showing the
guards in apparent motion, as if they were marching through
the city, out of the canvass and towards the viewer.

(03:00):
In other words, he staged the portrait as if it
were a historical painting, making it seem like a portrayal
of some important event instead of just a bunch of
guys standing still. But The Night Watch also stands out
from other art of the era due to its dramatic
use of color and in particular its contrasting use of
light and shadow. For example, in the foreground of the painting,

(03:24):
we see the captain of the guard in dark colored
clothing standing next to his lieutenant, who's wearing bright gold clothing.
That motif continues in the crowd of figures that stand
behind them. The dark toned background is broken up by
the light colored faces and highlighted forms of the other
civic guardsmen, and to add even more contrasting shades of

(03:45):
light to the scene, Rembrandt included a glowing, blondhaired child
dressed in golden robes just to the left of the captain.
To be clear, this young girl was not a real
member of the Cloveniers. Instead, she was included it as
a kind of symbolic mascot for the group. Despite these
unconventional touches, the guardsmen were reportedly quite happy with the

(04:08):
portrait and displayed it in their hall as intended. But
speaking of light and shadow, the painting's title is actually
a misnomer. In fact, it was originally called the Shooting
Company of Captain Franz Bonning Coke, and it went by
others similarly unwieldy names as well over time, though the

(04:28):
painting's dark background earned it the name that Stuck the
night Watch. But as I said, that title isn't really accurate.
In the nineties, the canvas underwent a thorough cleaning, at
which point it was realized that the painting was actually
said in the daytime. The dark background wasn't the night
sky at all. It was just varnish that had turned

(04:50):
dark with age and grime. Still, old habits die hard,
so even after the varnish was removed, the famous name
stayed put. In an interesting twist, the dirty varnish that
had confused viewers for centuries actually helped protect the painting
when it was attacked for the first time. The event
occurred in early nineteen eleven, when a navy cook who

(05:13):
was down on his luck, decided to vent his frustrations
by disfiguring a beloved work of art. Thankfully, the cook
wasn't able to cause much damage, as he couldn't get
his knife through the painting's thick coat of varnish. It
was a lucky break for art lovers, but since the
varnish was later removed in the nineteen forties, the painting
was more susceptible to damage during the second knife attack

(05:37):
on September fourteenth, nineteen seventy five. On that occasion, it
was out of work schoolmaster William de Reich, who was
feeling frustrated. He had tried to slash the painting the
day before, but wound up being turned away because he'd
arrived at the museum after closing time. Annoyed but undeterred,
de Reich returned to the museum the following afternoon. He

(06:00):
walked directly to the large chamber where the night watch hangs,
and proceeded to slash at the lower center section of
the enormous canvas. A guard grabbed him by the arm
to make him stop, but day Reich shook him off
and kept right on slashing. He was eventually wrestled to
the ground with the aid of two bystanders and fellow
guards who had rushed over from other rooms. As they

(06:23):
waited for police to arrive. Day Reich tried to explain
his actions, claiming he'd been sent to the museum on
a divine mission and that he quote did it for
the Lord. It was later revealed that the thirty eight
year old former teacher had a history of mental illness,
and then he truly believed he had been ordered by
God to destroy the painting. Under this compulsion, day Reich

(06:46):
traveled to the city from his village thirty miles west
of Amsterdam, and then stole a butter knife from the
downtown restaurant where he had gotten lunch. After his capture,
day Reich was diagnosed with a mental disorder and committed
to a psychiatric hospital. Less than a year later, he
died there by his own hand. Although day Reich had

(07:07):
attacked the night Watch with a relatively blunt knife, he
still managed to do extensive damage to the painting. He
had struck in more than a dozen places, with some
of the cuts stretching more than two ft long, and
in the center section a twelve by two and a
half inch piece of canvas had been completely torn off.
It took six months to restore the massive painting, and

(07:30):
even then traces of the cuts were still visible. From
that point on, the night Watch was put under permanent
guard day and night. However, even that wasn't enough to
deter would be attackers. In April of nine, the Hapless
painting was defaced again, this time by being sprayed with

(07:50):
a concentrated dose of sulfuric acid. If you're keeping track,
That was the third and thankfully final time the night
Watch was attacked in the twentieth century. At least, once again,
the painting underwent a lengthy restoration process, and once again
the damage was mostly undone. The current main building of

(08:12):
the Reich's Museum opened on July thirteenth, eighteen eighty five.
Since then, the night Watch has been one of the
biggest draws of the museum's already impressive collection. Prior to
COVID nineteen, more than two million visitors came to see
it each year. It's basically required viewing for every school
kid in the Netherlands, for local omster dammers, and of

(08:34):
course for tourists. And while clearly not everyone is a
fan of what they see, the majority can help but
marvel at the painting's use of contrast, its composition, its
sense of motion, and its sheer size from any angle.
Rembrandts The Night Watch continues to impress and captivate viewers

(08:54):
nearly four centuries after its creation, even if the painting
itself is a little for wear. I'm Gabe Lousier and
hopefully you now know a little more about art history
today than you did yesterday. You can learn even more
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(09:15):
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you back here again tomorrow for another day in history Class.