Art: Under the Varnish

Time, helped by the eager brushes of varnishers and retouchers, has altered many a painting so that even its old master wouldn’t know it. In 1946, restorers at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum disconcerted art lovers by cleaning up Rembrandt’s famous Night Watch,* admired for generations because of its air of midnight mystery. Under decades of dust, soot and varnish was a picture painted in the clear morning light, filled with bright colors and contrasts. Last week The Hague’s Mauritshuis displayed another cleaned-up Rembrandt masterpiece: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the Dutch master’s first great group portrait, painted in 1632 when he was 26. The results were equally startling.

When four layers of varnish were removed, drab yellows and blacks turned into delicate white, grey and rose. Hidden architectural details appeared in the background. A hand, repainted twice in the past three centuries, resumed its original form. An anatomical diagram was discovered on the sheet of paper that one man was holding. X-ray photographs revealed more. A face at the top of the group had apparently been painted in after the picture was completed. The refined-looking Dr. Tulp had originally been a coarse-featured Dutchman. Restorers could not uncover the original face, however, for fear of destroying the painting.

Critics admitted that in at least one instance retouchers had improved on Rembrandt. Still struggling with problems of perspective, the young painter had done a poor job on Dr. Tulp’s chair. A later painter had straightened it out. Strangest discovery of all: some retoucher, evidently not liking the look of Rembrandt’s original signature, had covered it over with a carefully traced duplicate.

* Rembrandt left his group portrait of Captain Frans Banning Cocq’s “shooting company” untitled. Later generations have referred to it by various titles; the Night Watch became common usage in the 19th Century.