It did not precisely take dogged detective work for an artwork sleuth in Amsterdam to unravel a canine conundrum relationship again to the Dutch Golden Age.
Anne Lenders, a curator on the metropolis’s landmark Rijksmuseum, stated Tuesday that it was roughly accidentally that she found that the barking canine in Rembrandt van Rijn’s well-known “Evening Watch” is a near-identical copy of 1 that options in a 1619 pen and ink drawing by fellow Dutch artist Adriaen van de Venne.
“I wasn’t on the lookout for this; it was actually surprising,” Lenders stated within the glass room the place “Evening Watch” is present process intensive restoration.
An artwork restorer factors on the picture of a canine in Rembrandt’s Evening Watch at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, Netherlands, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Peter Dejong / AP
She was visiting an exhibition on the Zeeuws Museum within the southern Netherlands when her eye fell on an image of a canine by Van de Venne that was printed in a e book by the poet Jacob Cats. The unique drawing – which turned out to be a part of the Rijksmuseum’s personal huge assortment – was additionally on show.
Utilizing her cellphone to match the 2 pictures facet by facet, the 39-year-old Dutchwoman noticed “hanging similarities” between van de Venne’s canine and the canine depicted in Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece.
“The resemblance is so robust that on the very first second I assumed he (Rembrandt) will need to have used this,” she added.
That is when the analysis began: a comparability of Van de Venne’s and Rembrandt’s canines; their pose, even the collar they put on.
“The pinnacle turns in precise the identical angle with the mouth barely opened. … Each canines have lengthy hair and ears that grasp vertical,” stated Lenders.
Element of the seventeenth century drawing by Dutch artist Adriaen van de Venne which impressed Rembrandt when portray a canine within the Evening Watch, is proven on an easel on the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Peter Dejong / AP
Within the “Evening Watch,” the canine provides pressure to a darkish nook of the crowded composition, crouching and apparently barking close to a drummer referred to as Jacob Jorisz and simply behind one of many iconic 1642 portray’s principal characters, Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch.
The invention is the most recent in a sequence of revelations to emerge throughout a yearslong undertaking to reexamine the 379.5 by 453.5-centimeter (149.4 by 178.5-inch) canvas utilizing fashionable strategies. “Operation Evening Watch” started in 2019 with an in depth examine of the portray and is continuous with restoration work that’s prone to take years to finish.
“The Evening Watch is Rembrandt’s most well-known portray and we all the time suppose that it was created out of nothing, out of his genius,” Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, instructed Agence France-Presse. “However Rembrandt, like the nice Italian masters Michelangelo and Raphael, used artistic endeavors by artists earlier than him to make his personal compositions.”
One factor the Rijksmuseum could not work out was precisely what sort of canine it’s, with knowledgeable opinions divided between a French or a Dutch breed. Probably, the 2 artists used a bit of poetic license.
“We are going to by no means have a conclusion on which breed it’s,” Dibbits stated. “But it surely’s positively very a lot beloved.”
Whereas Dibbits credited “nicely knowledgeable luck” for the discover, he stated such discovery may solely have occurred with the assistance of “Operation Evening Watch”, a large-scale public restoration undertaking launched in 2019.
“You’ll say, nicely, the portray is so well-known, every part has already been found,” he stated,
“However after all you all the time with artwork uncover new issues and that is why Rembrandt is such an incredible artist.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.