The Corpses of the de Witt Brothers, Jan and Cornelis, Hanging on the Groene Zoodje on the Vijverberg, The Hague, 1672

The Dutch still call 1672 the Year of Disaster. France, England and two German prince-bishops attacked the Republic, and within weeks large parts of the country were occupied. Anger turned on Johan de Witt, for close to 20 years the most powerful man in the Republic, and on his brother Cornelis, jailed in The Hague on a charge of plotting against the young Prince of Orange. On 20 August civic guardsmen shot both men. A crowd stripped and mutilated the bodies, then hung them by the feet from the scaffold on the Groene Zoodje.

This small night scene, attributed to Jan de Baen, shows them there. An old note on the back explains which body is which. Cornelis is the one without a wig, Johan wears his own hair, and at 11 o'clock that night they were still hanging.