Meagre Company

Today the painting is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, on loan to the Rijksmuseum, where it is considered one of its main attractions of the Honor Gallery.

Hals was unhappy about commuting to Amsterdam to work on the painting and, unlike his previous group portraits, was unable to deliver it on time.

In Haarlem, the civic guards were traditionally portrayed in the kniestuk style of being "cut off at the knee" in three-quarter length portraits.

Seated next to him are Captain Reael, with hat and commander's staff, and Lieutenant Cornelis Michielsz Blaeuw, balding and holding a spontoon.

In 1636 Hals was called to Amsterdam to finish the painting, but he refused, offering to receive the sitters in his Haarlem studio with assurances that they would not need to sit very long.

The post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh was inspired by the painting, which he saw when he paid a visit to The Night Watch in the newly opened Rijksmuseum in 1885.

He sent an enthusiastic letter about it to his brother Theo:[1] I don’t know whether you remember that to the left of the Night watch, in other words as a pendant to the Syndics, there’s a painting — it was unknown to me until now — by Frans Hals and P. Codde, 20 or so officers full length.

But that orange, white, blue chap in the left corner — — …… I’ve seldom seen a more divinely beautiful figure — — it’s something marvellous.

The group paintings that formerly hung in this hall have been since transferred to the Amsterdam Museum, except for this one and a later one by Bartholomeus van der Helst, which are both on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum.

If there was a competition in Amsterdam to win militia group portrait commissions, then Van der Helst was clearly favored above Codde.