Dutch, 'A Company of Amsterdam Militiamen', 19th century

This picture is either a copy of a mid-seventeenth-century Dutch painting, which is now lost, or an imitation or pastiche. As the paint contains a pigment that was not available to artists until the 1840s, it was most likely painted in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The picture has previously been linked to several seventeenth-century Dutch artists, most notably Govert Flinck, a pupil of Rembrandt, as there is some very superficial resemblance to his paintings of the late 1640s. The clothes can also be dated to that period. However, any connection to Flinck is extremely tenuous.

Group portraits were popular in Dutch painting, with Rembrandt’s Night Watch of 1642 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) being the most famous example. The group here consists of helmeted soldiers and finely dressed cavaliers, who may be officers. A standard bearing the arms of Amsterdam can be seen behind one of the men in black who stands centre left.