Ernst van de Wetering (1938) was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. After finishing his training he became an artist and art teacher. In 1968, while studying art history at the University of Amsterdam, he was invited as an assistant to the Rembrandt Research Project (RRP), which had started the same year. In 1970 he became a member of the RRP team and in 1992 he succeeded Josua Bruyn as its chairman. Between 1969 and 1987 he was a staff member of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. Since 1987 he has been professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam. The Rembrandt Research Project has published three volumes with the results of its investigation in A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume IV will appear in 2005.

Van de Wetering has published extensively and lectured in numerous countries on Rembrandt, on historical studio practice as well as in the field of theory and ethics of restoration and conservation. His book Rembrandt. The Painter at Work (1997) provides an insight into a variety of technical, artistic and aesthetic aspects of Rembrandt's work. In 2003, Van de Wetering was knighted by the Dutch queen for his work on the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage.