Research
Research, conservation and restoration are vitally important in ensuring the Rijksmuseum’s exceptional and multifaceted collection remains visible and relevant to coming generations.
Experts at the Rijksmuseum’s world-leading Conservation & Science Department use the latest technologies and knowledge to conserve, restore and conduct scientific analysis on works of art in its collection. As a centre of expertise in this field as well as the field of art and history, the Rijksmuseum is keenly aware of its responsibility around the training of new generations of curators, restorers and researchers. We use the collection and our in-house expertise to meet this responsibility.
Our partnerships, our research inside and outside the museum, and our presentations and publications all contribute to the sharing of knowledge internationally, and to talent development within the various fields of research – which range in focus from the past to preservation for the future.
FELLOWSHIPS
The Fellowship Programme supports scholarly and scientific research that contributes to academic discourse and a broad international knowledge network. It enables talented applicants from around the world to conduct part of their research at the Rijksmuseum, where they have access to our expertise, collections, library and restoration workshops. The fellowships foster the advancement and exchange of knowledge – among the fellows, with other scholars and with the broader museum public.
The Mellon Fellowship offers a place to academics conducting object-based art, cultural and historical research that centres on the Netherlands as an international crossroads for art, artists and artistic ideas and materials. The Fellowship invites scholars from diverse backgrounds to engage with a wide variety of subjects, including the migration of artists to and from the Netherlands, the trade in artists’ materials, shared cultural heritage, and the effect of intercultural networks.
JAPANESE PRINTS, A CLOSER LOOK
The Rijksmuseum’s Conservation & Science department uses state-of-the-art techniques to lead the way in research on the restoration and conservation of objects in our various sub-collections. In 2024 our photography and paper studios started work on the Japanese Prints, a Closer Look project, which runs until 2028. The focus of this multidisciplinary study is on the dyes and pigments used in the Rijksmuseum’s extensive collection of some 5,000 Japanese woodcut prints. The project is supported by Metamorfoze, the national programme for the preservation of paper heritage (based at the national library of the Netherlands, or KB). The aim of the research is to determine the condition of the prints and to establish how we can best preserve and display the collection for future generations.
OPERATION NIGHT WATCH
2019 saw the start of Operation Night Watch, the most extensive and innovative research and restoration project ever to focus on Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch. It brings together groundbreaking technologies and art historical expertise to analyse each square millimetre of the painting and to reveal the secrets of its pigments, composition and conservation. Housed in a specially designed glass-walled restoration room in the Gallery of Honour, this iconic work of art is undergoing meticulous preparation for its conservation for future generations in full view of the visiting public. Organisations including the PACCAR Foundation, the American Express Foundation, Stichting Zabawas and Stichting Thurkowfonds supported the research phase of this project with contributions for specialist research equipment and talent development. The actual restoration treatment of the painting commenced in 2024.