Middle Period-2
Rembrandts group portraiture continued to develop in richness and complexity. The so-called Night Watch-more accurately titled The Shooting Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (1642, Rijksmuseum)-portrays the bustling activity of a military company, gathered behind its leaders, preparing for a parade or shooting contest. In departing from the customary static mode of painting rows of figures for the corporate portrait, Rembrandt achieved a powerful dramatic effect. Despite the popular myth that the painting was rejected by those who commissioned it, and led to a decline in Rembrandt’s reputation and fortune, it was actually well received.
Many of Rembrandt’s landscapes in this middle period are romantic and based on his imagination rather than recording specific places. The inclusion of ancient ruins and rolling hills, not a part of the flat Dutch countryside, as in River Valley with Ruins (Staatliche Gemaldegalerie, Kassel), suggests a classical influence derived from Italy.
