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Syndics of the Drapers' Guild

Artist: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669)
Date: 1662
Dimensions: 191.5 x 279 cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Syndics of the Drapers' Guild is a group portrait of the five officials who inspected the quality of cloth for Amsterdam's drapers, together with their servant. They sit around a table covered with a rich red oriental carpet, an account book open before them.

A closer look

Rembrandt gave the traditional group portrait a sense of a captured moment: the men look up from their work, as if someone had just entered the room, and one of them is half rising from his chair. Their black clothes and broad-brimmed hats are set against the warm wooden panelling and the glowing red of the tablecloth. The low viewpoint suggests that we, the viewers, are standing below them, perhaps as members of the guild presenting cloth for inspection. X-rays show that Rembrandt changed the positions of the figures several times.

History of the painting

The portrait hung for more than a century in the Staalhof, the drapers’ guild hall in Amsterdam, for which it was painted. In 1771 it moved to the city’s town hall, and in 1808 it was lent to the national museum, which later became the Rijksmuseum; since 1885 it has hung in the Rijksmuseum building. In the 20th century it became familiar far beyond museums as the picture on the boxes of Dutch Masters cigars.

Syndics of the Drapers' Guild

A closer look

History of the painting

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