Night Scene with soldiers

Bramer often used slate as a picture support. For the "Night Scene with Soldiers" he chose an oval piece of slate, skilfully using the natural colour as the dominant expressive medium for his nocturne. The soot rising from the torch-bearer’s orange-red flame is darker than the night. It is this artificial light source that lends plasticity to the figure of the soldier on his piebald horse. While this quality is more reduced in the rider on the left, the rider approaching the torch-bearer almost merges into the darkness, only dimly recognisable. Due to the conflict with the Spaniards during the first half of the 17th century, soldiers were familiar figures in Dutch towns, and were included in genre paintings. Johann Rudolph Czernin bought the work at an auction in 1806 from the heirs of Armand François Louis de Mestral de Saint-Saphorin.

Ducke Astrid: Leonaert Bramer, Night Scene with Soldiers, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 114-115