Willem van Ruytenburch

Willem van Ruytenburch is second to Captain Frans Banning Cocq in Rembrandt's Night Watch.

Willem van Ruytenburch (baptized 13 August 1600 - 1657) of Amsterdam was a lieutenant to Captain Frans Banning Cocq in the mid-17th century. He is best known as the lieutenant in Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch.^[1]

Although known as The Night Watch, this is not the original title; at that time it was in fact unusual to title paintings but if indeed it had a name, the more correct one would be "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch". The painting is notable, among other things, for its huge size: approximately 3.35 m x 4.26 m (11 ft by 14 ft).

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