Lang Leve Rembrandt is the title of the competition organized by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This year is all about the 350th anniversary of the death of the world-famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn. This year, many museums are organizing exhibitions, competitions and other activities around this theme. During the art lessons for kids in our studio, our students painted a huge reproduction of the Night Watch on 70 separate panels measuring 20 by 20 cm. The original painting is huge, but we painted The Nightwatch on a still very impressive size, 200 by 140 cm.

First,  the bare wooden panels were prepared with gesso. Then the students cut their own piece of a Night Watch poster of ten by ten cm and copied it on the wooden panels. They then painted over the drawing with acrylic paint. Eventually this internationally mixed group of young artists between the ages of 10 and 17 created a fantastic reproduction of the Nightwatch on seventy wooden tiles. It was quite a puzzle to ensure that all parts fit together correctly, but in the end we succeeded.

I am proud of my students and the final result is more than I expected. Especially considering the time limitation we had, well done!

See here our short film about making our version of the Night Watch.

We will send this film in to the Rijksmuseum and who knows, maybe we will be chosen to participate in the exhibition “Long Live Rembrandt” from 15 July to 15 September 2019 in the Rijksmuseum. To be continued!