De Magere Compagnie (completed 1637), which depicts a company of schutterij, a voluntary
city guard or citizen
militia in the
medieval and
early modernNetherlands.
Frans Hals was commissioned to create this, but he was unable to complete it after three years, and the company hired
Pieter Codde to finish it. Group portraits such as this of schutterij were known as schuttersstuk, and were popular among the guards themselves.