27 September 2026

You’ve probably heard the phrase “good artists copy, great artists steal.”

While attributed to Pablo Picasso, there’s actually no historical record that he actually said it. But nonetheless, this is a pretty common sentiment in the world of art. Look, for example, at pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, who didn’t exactly have permission to use all those comic strips in his work.

Over the last century or so, with the massive influx of media, it’s been much easier for artists to see something someone else did and “borrow” it or maybe just flat-out steal it. But, what about 400 years ago? Not as simple, certainly, but it appears as though Rembrandt van Rijn not only saw the work of another artist, he pretty much copied something from it exactly and put it into perhaps his most famous painting.

In 1640, Rembrandt was commissioned by the civic guard in Amsterdam to produce a patriotic painting showing members ready for action. While it has been dubbed The Night Watch, the scene actually depicts activity during the daytime, but thanks to years of varnish and dirt, it just got darker and darker. (The official title is Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq., which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.)

If you look at paintings from this time period, you’ll really only see three different subjects: religious figures, historical scenes, or portraits of wealthy people. This is what made The Night Watch kind of revolutionary, as it doesn’t fit into any of those categories.

There’s certainly a lot going on in this painting, but if you’re a dog lover, you probably spotted the pup in the lower right corner. And if you moseyed on over to another part of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, you’d see one suspiciously similar in another work.

In 1619, Adriaen van de Venne completed the drawing above, which was used for the cover of an emblem book by Jacob Cats. These books used poems and allegorical illustrations to offer wisdom and guidance concerning the moral issues of the day. This one, called Self- Strijt, attempts to show the battle between good and evil, and in the background, we see the wife of Potiphar trying to seduce Joseph. But enough about that, look at the dog. Now go back to Rembrandt’s painting. They’re almost identical.

While these two works have been in the Rijksmuseum for more than 100 years, only recently did anybody notice their connection. Since 2019, there has been a restoration project and in-depth study of The Night Watch, and it was curator Anne Lenders who noticed the similarities.

“When I saw the drawing, I immediately thought of the dog in The Night Watch,” she said. “The dog’s head, collar, and pose have such a strong resemblance that it can only mean Rembrandt used this drawing as a source of inspiration. The follow-up research has confirmed this.”

This research involved using X-rays to see Rembrandt’s original sketch, and the findings were even more startling. The early drawing shows that he had the dog crouching lower and resting on its front legs, which means that he copied Van de Venne’s dog even more closely than what ended up in the painting. Rembrandt did incorporate some new elements, however, including adding a lolling tongue and longer ears.

It looks as though The Night Watch isn’t a one-off when it comes to cribbing from Van de Venne’s drawing. In 1655, Rembrandt completed a painting called Joseph Accused by Potiphar’s Wife. Sound familiar? And while many artists routinely painted the same subject matter, like the dog, the pose of each Joseph is quite alike. The bedding in Rembrandt’s is also similar to the earlier work.

So, the question is: How did Rembrandt become familiar with Van de Venne’s drawings? It’s not entirely known, but that emblem book was popular. Plus, Rembrandt was a student of art history, and he had a big collection of prints and drawings from other artists. Said Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits: “You see that in Italian treatises on painting in the 16th century, it really was the intention that you as a starting artist would copy a lot, make it your own, so that you could improve on it and continue the work another artist had left behind.”

Dibbits is thrilled with the museum’s work on The Night Watch and that there’s still a lot to learn about both the art and the artist. “It is remarkable that new discoveries are still being made about one of the most studied paintings in the world, almost 400 years after it was made,” he said. “This finding gives us yet more insight into Rembrandt’s thought processes when creating this work.”

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