RIJKSMUSEUM , Rembrandt's Later Works

Rembrandt’s last paintings are displayed in one of the rooms of the central gallery, just before The Night Watch.

The great painter continued to receive important assignments during the last years of his life, such as the group portrait from 1662 entitled The Sampling Officials, depicting the five representatives of the drapers’ guild, accompanied by their attendant.

The main feature of the scene are the samples of fabrics that the conversation is focused on. The sequence of seated characters is interrupted by the second figure from the left, whose gesture of rising from his seat breaks up the immobile pattern of the meeting.

The painter’s decision to have the guildsmen’s attention facing the observer is a stroke of genius. It’s as if we’ve taken a step too close, making the floorboards creak: the busy gentlemen raise their eyes from the ledger, leaving their conversation and their movements suspended in mid-air, turning as one to look in our direction....