The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild, known as ‘The Syndics’

Five men in sober black and broad-brimmed hats sit around a green-cloth table holding a ledger and a series of account sheets, their sober faces turned to the viewer with an air of quiet authority. Painted in 1662, this celebrated boardroom scene shows the officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild as Rembrandt depicted them late in life, when he had given up fashionable commissions for quieter, more profound subjects. The firmness and serenity of the composition, long since read as a study of corporate duty and probity, made ‘The Syndics’ one of the most admired group portraits in European painting and a favourite study of later masters, including Van Gogh.