The Night Watch

The Night Watch is the common English name for Rembrandt's 1642 painting of an Amsterdam militia company, one of the most celebrated works in Western art.

The title is a misnomer—the scene depicts a daytime mustering, but centuries of varnish darkened the canvas until it appeared nocturnal.

More broadly, a night watch is a guard duty performed during nighttime hours, or the group assigned to keep watch through the night: He drew the night watch again.