Katrien Keune uses complex, heterogeneous samples to try to better understand pieces of art. She is currently responsible for the scientific research within Operation Night Watch. ‘The way we are now researching the Night Watch would not have been possible five years ago.’ 

In her work at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, first as a researcher and since 2019 as head of the Science department, chemist Katrien Keune links fundamental research on the properties and behaviour of materials to the appearance of pieces of art in the collection. Keune tries to gain insight into how that appearance has changed in the past and may change in the future. She is currently responsible for the scientific research within Operation Night Watch, a large-scale research and conservation project in which Rembrandt’s famous painting is being meticulously mapped out using a wide range of analysis techniques.