_Gerrit Lundens_ (Dutch: 1622-1677).
This is a copy, on a greatly reduced scale, of the famous picture by
Rembrandt (painted in 1642), now in the State-Museum at Amsterdam. It
is of interest as showing the pristine condition of its great original,
which in the earlier part of the eighteenth century was maltreated on
all four sides, and thereby shorn of some of its figures in order to
suit the dimensions of a room to which it was at that time removed. The
picture had so darkened by time or neglect, that it came to be called
"The Night Watch." The real subject is the march out of a company of
the Amsterdam Musketeers from their Headquarters' Hall, under the
command of their captain, Frans Banning Cocq, who is seen advancing
in the centre and giving orders to his lieutenant. The principal
figures are all portraits, and the names were written on the back of
the picture. Our copy was painted for Cocq himself, and after many
vicissitudes reached England at the beginning of the nineteenth century.