WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama praises art backdrop

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Forget about the White House East Room. President Barack Obama says a famous Dutch art work provided one of the best settings ever for one of his statements to the media.

Towering behind him as he spoke at the Rijksmuseum, the recently renovated Dutch national art house, was Rembrandt’s 17th-century masterpiece known as the “The Night Watch.” The enormous canvas, painted in 1642 at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age, is nearly 12 feet by more than 14 feet. It portrays a company of Amsterdam volunteer militiamen preparing to mobilize.