The Night Watchman...

One of my three favorite paintings of all time is Rembrandt's Die Nachtwache (aka The Night Watch).

Maybe that's why I love the feeling every night of making the final rounds of the house, closing the windows (love the cool, fresh air of late summer evenings), turning off the lights (with one push-thank you X-10 system), and setting the alarm system.

It feeds my sense of family protector/defender and keeping "the women and children" safe.

BTW, the other 2 favorite paintings are:

• Hunters in the Snow (Pieter Bruegel the Elder)
• Wanderer ueber dem Nebelmeer [Wanderer Above the Mist] (Caspar David Friedrich)

These are the only three paintings (er, prints) I have ever purchased. The last two hang now on mounted poster board in the "man cave." The first one was hanging on the wall in my apartment in New York (while I was single) and I bequeathed it to the guys who were living there (wish I hadn't. Ugh. Oh well.)


All of this because my mom told me to take Art History (her major) when I was a junior. Listen to your mother!

I should add that I bought my prints while I lived in Europe at the museums where they are housed...The Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), and Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg) respectively, so they all have an additional sentimental value to me.

Bonus points for anyone who figures out the 1 sentence idea of why I love each one of these and what they represent. Here's the degree of difficulty:

• Night Watch-Hard
• Hunters in the Snow-Medium
• Wanderer-Easy