. The Netherland galleries : being a history of the Dutch school of painting, illuminated and demonstrated by critical descriptions of the great paintings in the many galleries. w arrange-ment, which consists of a lean-to, built back ofthis old Rembrandt gallery, containing a new roomfor the Night Watch, and a few smaller cab-inets for the famous Staalmeesters and someother paintings by Rembrandt. The result has been calculated with mathemat-ical precision. The grand painting stands alongthe short wall in a room 26 by 39 feet. The ceil-ing is of oak panelling, and the light comes througha long
. The Netherland galleries : being a history of the Dutch school of painting, illuminated and demonstrated by critical descriptions of the great paintings in the many galleries. w arrange-ment, which consists of a lean-to, built back ofthis old Rembrandt gallery, containing a new roomfor the Night Watch, and a few smaller cab-inets for the famous Staalmeesters and someother paintings by Rembrandt. The result has been calculated with mathemat-ical precision. The grand painting stands alongthe short wall in a room 26 by 39 feet. The ceil-ing is of oak panelling, and the light comes througha long, high window in the wall to the left of thepainting, which light is broken by some ten coulissesor screens which reflect the light evenly over thewhole canvas. On the left part of the painting,nearest the window, is a disturbing this one exception the arrangement of light-ing may be considered perfect, and the painting isnow seen, presumably, under the same conditionsof light under which Rembrandt painted it. Itmay now be studied to better advantage. Its tech-nical masterfulness has never before been so fullydemonstrated. The problem which the commission. JAN VANOOSTSANEN Plate in{See page 308) Gbe Hrt Galleries of Ifoollano 17 set itself has been solved by applying every rule ofyardstick, theories of light angles and calculation. But this is not all. The grandest painting on earth is put in a closet. There is no distance from which to view close against the opposite wall one is lessthan forty feet away from the heroic figures thatstretch over a canvas twenty feet wide. It is im-possible to see the entire composition without turn-ing the head from side to side — a reproduction ona postal card, held at the proper distance, is moreimpressive. And then to remember the glorious view of theold place. It is a memory — but may the time come thatthis painting be restored to its old place, anothersolution of the light problem be found, and thevista of th
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