Petria Noble

Institute: Rijksmuseum

Country: The Netherlands

Petria Noble is Senior Paintings Conservator and Head of Paintings Conservation at the Rijksmuseum. Before joining the Rijksmuseum in 2014, she worked for 18 years at the Mauritshuis in The Hague (from 2005 as Head of Paintings Conservation). Originally from Australia, she carried out her graduate studies in art history and conservation at New York University and trained at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

As an expert in the material aspects and conservation of 17th-century Dutch paintings she has lectured and published widely. Her research interests center on technical investigations of paintings as a key to understanding artists’ painting techniques and changes in appearance. From 2012-2018, together with Delft University of Technology, she spearheaded the application of new imaging techniques for the investigation of late Rembrandt paintings as part of the Science4Arts project: ‘ReVisualizing Rembrandt: the development and application of new imaging techniques’ that was co-funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the American National Science Foundation (NSF). She is currently co-principal investigator of the 2016-2020 NICAS-funded project entitled: ‘Multi-isotopic analysis of early modern art: Linking origin, trade and production of raw materials with provenance research’, led by the department of Earth Sciences at the Vrije University Amsterdam. As part of the multi-disciplinary Operation Night Watch team, Petria Noble is responsible for the conservation treatment of the painting.

In June 2021 Petria Noble recorded a sneak peak on Operation Night Watch in front of the painting especially for the masterclass. The introduction is available through this subpage on our website: Lecture 11: June 2021 – Petria Noble.