Pieter Roelofs is Head of Paintings and Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum. He specialises in 17th-century Dutch painting and is currently part of the team of Operation Night Watch, the largest research and conservation project to date for Rembrandt's Night Watch. Since last year, as chairman of the jury, he has participated in the successful Dutch NPO1/NTR television programme Project Rembrandt, which will start its second season in 2020.

From 2006 to 2017, Roelofs worked as the curator of 17th-century Dutch painting at the Rijksmuseum. In this role, he was a member of the project team that worked on the refurbishment of the 17th-century Dutch galleries in the museum, put together various exhibitions and presentations, and was involved in various acquisitions, loans and donations.

Roelofs has published on a wide range of art historical topics, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. The book Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen - Paris - Dijon. Art around 1400 (Rijksmuseum, 2017), which appeared under his editorship, was awarded the title of Best Fine Arts Book 2018 at the Festival International du Livre d'Art et du Film (FILAF) in Perpignan.

Roelofs gives lectures and presentations on visual art both in the Netherlands and abroad. He was a fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York and taught at Radboud University, the European Center of Emerson College Boston and Institute Posterheide. Before joining the Rijksmuseum in 2006, Roelofs worked as a curator at Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen, where he was responsible for, among other things, the international loan exhibitions Mirror of the Russian Soul (2004, with the State Historical Museum, Pskov) and The Limbourg Brothers. Nijmegen Masters at the French court, 1400-1416 (2005).

Recent exhibitions 2015 - 2019 (selection)

• Vogels in het Rijksmuseum, DWDD Pop-Up Museum, Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, 29 January – 25 May 2015 (with prof. Pieter van Vollenhoven and Nico de Haan)
• Rembrandt’s Claudius Civilis (in collaboration with The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm) Gallery of Honour, 21 May 2015 – 15 May 2017
• Asia in Amsterdam. The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age (in collaboration with The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem) Philips wing, 17 October 2015 – 17 January 2016 (with Jan van Campen, Femke Diercks, Martine Gosselink and Karina Corrigan (PEM))
• Hercules Segers (in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Philips wing, 7 October 2016 – 8 January 2017 (with Huigen Leeflang)
• Hercules Segers, TEFAF New York, 21 – 25 October 2016 (with Huigen Leeflang)
• Dutch Skies, Rijksmuseum Schiphol, 5 September 2017 – 25 January 2018
• Johan Maelwael (in collaboration with Musée du Louvre, Parijs), Philips wing, 6 October 2017 – 7 January 2018
• Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 11 November 2017 – 18 February 2018
• Making the Difference. Vermeer and Dutch Art Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 5 October 2018 – 3 February 2019; Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan, 16 February – 12 May 2019
• Long Live Rembrandt!, Philips wing, 15 July – 15 September 2019 (with Annemies Broekgaarden)

Recent publications 2015 – 2019 (selection)

• [with Gijs van der Ham] ‘Het late heldendom van Batavenleider Julius Civilis’, Geschiedenis Magazine 50 (2015), no. 1, p. 14–19
• ‘Asia in The Hague: Jacob van Campen and the Oranjezaal at Huis ten Bosch’, in Jan van Campen a.o. (ed.), Asia in Amsterdam. The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) / Salem (Peabody Essex Museum) 2015, p. 170–171
• ‘Painting Asia. Oriental luxury goods and exotic curiosities in Dutch paintings’, in Jan van Campen a.o. (ed.), Asia in Amsterdam. The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) / Salem (Peabody Essex Museum) 2015, p. 228–244
• Entry 77 a-d (Willem Kalf), in Jan van Campen a.o. (ed.), Asia in Amsterdam. The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) / Salem (Peabody Essex Museum) 2015, p. 276–282
• Book review ‘Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu: life and work. A catalogue raisonné’, in Simiolus. Netherlands quarterly for the history of art 38 (2015–2016), no. 1/2, p. 87–92
• [with Sebastiaan Cobelens and Michiel Plomp] Echte winters. Het winterlandschap in de negentiende eeuw, Haarlem (Teylers Museum) / Bussum 2015
• ‘Hardrijderijen op doek en papier. “Een heerlyk en schilderagtig gezicht”’, in Sebastiaan Cobelens, Michiel Plomp and Pieter Roelofs, Echte winters. Het winterlandschap in de negentiende eeuw, Haarlem (Teylers Museum) / Bussum 2015, p. 88–101, 105–107
• [ed. with Huigen Leeflang] Hercules Segers. Painter-Etcher, 2 vols., exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2016. Nomination and Runner-up Karel van Mander Prize 2019.
• ‘Hercules Segers, the Painter’, in Huigen Leeflang and Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Hercules Segers. Painter-Etcher, vol. 2, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2016, p. 111–140
• ‘Catalogue of the Paintings’, in Huigen Leeflang and Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Hercules Segers. Painter-Etcher, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2016, p. 243–325
• ‘Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709), Wooded Landscape with Merrymakers in a Cart’, in Quentin Buvelot and Emilie Gordenker (ed.), Thank you: A tribute to Willem Baron van Dedem (1925–2015) / Eerbetoon aan Willem Baron van Dedem (1929–2015), Den Haag (Mauritshuis)/Londen (National Gallery)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2016, p. 64–67
• ‘Jan Asselijn. The Breach of St Anthony’s Dike near Amsterdam, 1651’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 64 (2016), p. 88–89
• [ed.] Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Parijs – Dijon. Kunst rond 1400, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017 / [ed.] Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Art around 1400, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017. Awarded FILAF Award Best Fine Arts Book 2018, Festival International du Livre d’Art en du Film, Perpignan
• ‘Prelude’, in Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Kunst rond 1400, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum 2017), p. 10-11 / Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Parijs – Dijon. Art around 1400, tent.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, pp. 10–11
• ‘Johan Maelwael: Painter at the Court of Burgundy’, in Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Art around 1400, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, p. 12–23 / ‘Johan Maelwael: schilder aan het Bourgondische hof’, in Pieter Roelofs (red.), Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Parijs – Dijon. Kunst rond 1400, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, p. 12–23
• ‘Johan Maelwael and the Ducal Painting Workshop in Burgundy’, in Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Art around 1400, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, p. 24–33 / ‘Johan Maelwael en de hertogelijke schilderwerkplaats in Bourgondië’, in Pieter Roelofs (red.), Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Parijs – Dijon. Kunst rond 1400, tent.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, pp. 24–33
• Entry’s 5, 21 and 37, in Pieter Roelofs (ed.), _Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Paris – Dijon. Art around 140_0, exh.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, p. 90–91, 122–123, 156–157 / Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen – Parijs – Dijon. Art around 1400, tent.cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, pp. 90–91, 122–123, 156–157
• [with Jos Koldeweij, ed.] Maelwael Van Lymborch Studies, vol. 1, Turnhout 2017
• ‘Prelude: Johan Maelwael and the Van Lymborch Brothers. Proposal for a Standardized Form of their Name’, in Jos Koldeweij and Pieter Roelofs (ed.), Maelwael Van Lymborch Studies, vol. 1, Turnhout 2017, p. 6–9
• Gold for Houkje Gerrits Bouma. The Women’s Skating Competition on the Stadsgracht in Leeuwarden on 21 January 1809, Painted by Nicolaas Baur, Amsterdam (KPN/ Rijksmuseum) 2018
• Entry no. 5, p. 36–37; no. 36, p. 108–109; no. 43, p. 122–123; no. 79, p. 200–201; no. 93, p. 230–231; no. 115, p. 276–277; no. 117, p. 280–281; no. 121, p. 288–289; no. 134, p. 318–319; no. 147, p. 346–347; no. 157, p. 368–69, in Gregor J. M. Weber (ed.), 1600–1700, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018. Awarded the ICMA Award of Excellence in the category Books EXTRA
• ‘Marie Cecile Thijs. Between Heaven & Earth/ Marie Cecile Thijs. Tussen Hemel & Aarde’, in Marie Cecile Thijs, Marie Cecile Thijs. Between Heaven & Earth, Rotterdam 2018, p. 4–5, 114–115
• ‘Making the Difference. Vermeer and Dutch Art’, in Making the Difference. Vermeer and Dutch Art, exh.cat. Tokyo (The Ueno Royal Museum)/Osaka (Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts) 2018, p. 30–33
• Short review ‘Slow Food: Dutch and Flemish Meal Still Lifes 1600-1640’, The Burlington Magazine 161 (February 2019), p. 180.