THE STANDARD BEARER
The Standard Bearer is seen as one of Rembrandt’s key works. He was an in-demand portrait painter in Amsterdam at the time, but he wanted to carve a new artistic path for himself – he probably used this painting to showcase his other skills and ambitions.
The brushstrokes are casual, even nonchalant. Together with Rembrandt’s intentional scratches in the paint and his use of light to achieve a three-dimensional effect, they make for a virtuosic display of his unique style. His work was taking a new direction in this period, and The Standard Bearer is really a prelude to The Night Watch. That makes it particularly exciting to have them hanging together in the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour.