AkzoNobel

AkzoNobel has been a partner of the Rijksmuseum since 2010. The company supplied the museum with approximately 8,000 litres of paint over the course of its ten-year renovation. A special colour palette known as Sikkens RIJKS Colors was developed for the purpose, corresponding to the colours originally used by architect Pierre Cuypers.

AkzoNobel is now the Rijksmuseum’s main partner on Operation Night Watch, the largest and most comprehensive research and restoration project in the history of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Rijksmuseum researchers, curators and restorers are working on the project in conjunction with colour specialists from AkzoNobel. Inventive scientific research on colour, light and paint is central to the next phase of the partnership. As the collaboration continues to intensify, we have established three key areas of attention.

Scientists from both the Rijksmuseum and AkzoNobel will be working on the following projects over the next two years:

• Re-creating Rembrandt's impastos to understand more about the way he created his unique paint formulas – the exact recipe still remains a mystery (impasto is the process or technique of applying paint thickly so it is raised from the surface, producing a three-dimensional effect).

• Designing colour calibration to better facilitate photography and digitization specifically for paintings. The system will also be specially tailored to the colours used in The Night Watch, which has a very unusual palette of dark colours.

• Improving the way visitors view The Night Watch – taking into account the influence of lighting conditions and environment on colour perception – using AkzoNobel’s latest digital technologies for more accurate colour reproduction in electronic displays.