Petria Noble
Thursday, July 14, 2022, 3:00 pm
Known as The Night Watch, Rembrandt’s 1642 group portrait of officers and other civic guardsmen of District II in Amsterdam, under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, is the artist’s largest extant painting and also his most ambitious. In the gallery at the Rijksmuseum between 2019 and 2021, in full view of the public, it was researched using analytical-imaging techniques and computer technology, supplemented by investigation of paint samples. Called “Operation Night Watch,” the project aims to gain a better understanding of the creation process and the condition of the artwork. In this talk, Petria Noble, Head of Paintings Conservation at the Rijksmuseum, presents the most important research results. The impact of numerous conservation interventions, along with aging and degradation, on the condition of the painting will also be discussed.
The lecture is part of the Summer Teachers Institute in Technical Art History, a weeklong workshop generously sponsored by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
